


Coffee and Convalescence

by Energybeing



Series: Stars Hollow [2]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls
Genre: Comedy, F/M, Gen, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-21
Updated: 2015-07-24
Packaged: 2018-04-05 10:44:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 29
Words: 74,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4176879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Energybeing/pseuds/Energybeing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Scoobies come up with an idea to keep Dawn and Xander away from the front lines.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> This story begins post-season seven for Buffy and late season four for Gilmore Girls. Ignores the comics. I do not own these shows. Do not sue me for using them. Please?
> 
> This story is the sequel to "Sweetness and Light". It carries on from where that left off. If you haven't read that story, this one won't make a great deal of sense.

Rory knew that you could ramble incoherently when you were talking to someone, especially if you were nervous. She'd done it herself enough times.

But she had never noticed before that you could ramble in the privacy of your own head, with no one else around.

Rory discovered this when she was presented with Xander's phone number. This was, by itself, not unusual. She'd had it before - although, admittedly, she'd forgotten it thanks to magic and the phone that owned that number was somewhere at the bottom of the Sunnydale crater. She'd tried calling it, when she'd first broken the memory spell. But the number was no longer in service.

Rory started off debating whether or not she should call Xander, only to quickly move on to how Xander had always called her when he'd said he would, but Jess hadn't, and Dean had. From there she began to wonder exactly what the symbol on the piece of paper meant, if the amulet was the same as the one she already had (it certainly looked like it) and why Xander hadn't even bothered to tell her that he was alive.

She was rather annoyed about that.

However, Rory found that her thoughts repeatedly skittered around the idea of actually picking up the phone and dialling the number. She wasn't sure that she wanted to.

Oh, she knew that she wanted to speak to Xander. She wanted to prove to herself that he wasn't dead. But, beyond that, she didn't know what to do. Xander had calmly let her forget him, and hadn't even tried to contact her. He'd known that she would forget him, and he let her go ahead with that, not knowing.

She would probably end up shrieking like a banshee at him, and then cry for a week. Rory didn't want to do that.

On the other hand, maybe he had a good explanation. Rory didn't know. She wouldn't know, unless she called.

She should probably call.

Should she?

~*~

It was while Jess was telling Dawn about the time he'd been thrown out of English for reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall instead of Dickens that Giles caught up with them.

"Ah, there you are, Dawn. Didn't you hear me when I said to wait out in the square?"

Dawn shrugged. "I heard, but I thought I'd best see the school that you're going to ship me off to before I actually go."

"You know it's not certain that you'll settle here. Buffy thinks you might prefer Rome."

Jess cleared his throat. Only then did Giles notice that he was there. "Oh, hello."

Jess waved.

"Giles, this is David Robert Jones. David, this is Giles." Dawn introduced

Giles' lips curled in a smile, although he tried to hide it. "Dawn, I very much doubt that's his name, unless his parents were massive Bowie fans."

"Well, she could hardly introduce me as Rebel Rebel, could she?" Jess said reasonably. Dawn was rather surprised that he managed to say that with a straight face.

"So what's your real name, then?" Giles asked.

At that point, Jess realised that he hadn't actually told Dawn his name. She'd asked for it earlier, but he hadn't given it. She hadn't pressed him, and he'd forgotten. "Jess."

"This your school?"

"Are you Dawn's father?" Jess countered.

Giles shrugged. Dawn said "More or less."

Jess raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like there's a story there."

"I believe that I was busy interrogating you parentally?"

Jess smirked. "I was never one for that."

"Yes. Well. Dawn, we'd better be going."

Dawn nodded and she and Giles walked away. Just as the corridor would've lead them around a corner and out of sight, she turned and waved. Jess, to his mild surprise, waved back.

~*~

Rory was going to call him. She was calling him. The phone was dialling. She could still hang up. But she wouldn't. She would see this through.

He picked up. Rory nearly hung up right then and there.

"Faith?" Xander said groggily. He sounded like he'd been asleep. "You were meant to call six hours ago. What happened?"

Rory nearly couldn't speak. She came very close to blurting out something like "Wstfgl." but instead managed to be slightly more articulate and say "Are you alive?"

"No, I was turned into a soulless bloodsucking vampire while you were away."

"Oh."

"I'm kidding, Faith. What's gotten into you? Normally you're wittier than this. I'm half asleep and I've already gotten you tongue-tied."

Rory took a deep breath. "Xander, I'm not Faith."

Xander sighed noisily. "I know, Rory. I recognized your voice."

"Then why didn't you say anything?"

"I thought I was dreaming."

"You dream about me?"

There was a long pause. Then Xander said "No." unconvincingly.

"Liar."

"That's not the point. How did you get this number? Scratch that, how do you even remember who I am?"

"Giles gave me the number, but I've remembered since I saw the news about Sunnydale." Rory said softly.

"Oh, hell."

"That's pretty much what it's been like, yes."

"I-I didn't... I... I'm coming to Stars Hollow."

"Xander-"

"Rory, we need to talk about this face to face. This is something that needs to be said in person. We need to discuss this properly."

"Okay." Rory said, not certain how she felt about seeing Xander.

"Right. I'll get on the first flight. I'll call you when I get there."

"Okay."

"Rory?"

"Yes?"

"I'm really glad you remember me."

Rory didn't reply. She didn't know what to say. Fortunately, Xander saved her from having to say something by hanging up.

~*~

Xander didn't immediately rush around his room trying to get packed. He instead calmly remained where he was and called Giles.

Giles answered immediately. "Hello?"

"Giles, what the hell did you do?" Xander said without preamble. Okay, so maybe he wasn't quite as calm as he would like to be.

"Ah. I guess that Rory called you?"

"Yes. What are you even doing there? I thought we agreed that she was to be left out of things."

"Call it an apology. For not telling you that she would forget you. I gave her another amulet as well as your number, if she wants to forget again, and a symbol that reversed the amulets effects so that she remembered you."

"She says she remembers everything since Sunnydale collapsed, Giles. She thought I was dead. For months. And I didn't dare go near her because I thought she would be better off not knowing about me, but all that time she thought I was dead."

Giles said something in Latin that Xander was pretty sure was a curse of some sort. "Yeah, that's pretty much how I felt."

"Xander, she'll probably kill you for not telling that you're alive. Did you explain?"

"No. I'm taking the next flight, I'll explain in person."

"Good. There's something that we'd better discuss, once you get here."

"What are you talking about? Are you still there?"

"Dawn and I are, yes."

"Why?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about."

"I really hate that whole mysterious, cryptic teacher thing you've got going."

"I'm working on it."

"Enough to tell me what you're talking about?"

"I guarantee that I'll be able to talk to you about it when you arrive."

"Yes. I know. You said. I was hoping for some kind of heads up."

"It'll be a surprise."

"Giles, I've lived on a Hellmouth my whole life. Surprises aren't good. Is this one going to be different?"

"It's a surprise."

"So I'm going to be surprised by the surprising nature of the surprise?"

"Well, yes. Of course. That's what happens with a surprise."

"Okay, it had better be a good surprise."

"Well, I'll surprise you with the nature of the surprise."

"Stop that."

"Sorry." Giles said unrepentantly. "Dawn says hi, by the way."

"Tell her I said hi." Xander said, before hanging up.

Then he stuck his head out of his bedroom door and yelled "Vi! I'm going to go and get beaten to death with a shovel and then Giles is going to surprise me with a surprising surprise. Can you hold the fort for a couple of days?"

"Sure!" Vi called back, presumably from her room. "Have fun!"

~*~

Giles put his phone in his pocket. Dawn immediately asked him "What's the surprise?"

"It's a surprise."

"How tautological."

"Not exactly. To call it an unexpected surprise would be a tautology. A surprising surprise is just redundant."

"Whatever. It's not my surprise. Why can't you just tell me?"

"Because you haven't yet prepared me an essay on the reasons that the youth of today seem incapable of grasping the concept of a surprise." Giles answered drily.

"You're hilarious."

"Does that surprise you?"

"Okay, you're just killing that now."

"Sorry."

"So does the surprise involve me or what?"

"Dawn, go and find out what a surprise is, will you?"

Dawn crossed her arms and pouted. "Spoilsport."

~*~

Jess was reluctant about going to Luke's, because he knew that his mother and her latest boyfriend (soon to be her latest husband) would be there. But he needed to talk to Luke, and having to listen to TJ and his general idiocy would be a small price to pay.

Fortunately, it seemed as though Luke had lost his temper with his sister and had sent Liz and TJ upstairs while he worked. "Hey." Jess said, sitting down at the bar.

"Hey. Liz is upstairs." Luke said shortly.

"Didn't really come to see her."

"Well, if you want coffee, you can make it yourself. I'm kind of swamped right now."

"Didn't really come for coffee, either."

"What do you want then, Jess?"

Jess absently traced a pattern on the counter. "Is the offer still open?"

"The offer for coffee? Sure. I only made it a minute ago. How fast do you think I'd change my mind?"

"Not that offer. The one you made last time I was in town." Jess clarified.

"Ah. You want to stay?" Luke said gently.

Jess didn't look up. "Yup."

"Sure you can. I've still got most of your stuff, if you want it."

"You kept it?"

"Of course."

"Thanks."

"It's nothing, really."

"Oh, I read something recently that said that gratitude should be frequently expressed if you hope for it to be reciprocated." Jess said, smiling crookedly as he remembered the self-help book Luke had given him.

Luke smiled back. "I seem to remember reading something like that."

~*~

"Hey, Mom?" Rory asked, as she emerged from her room after calling Xander.

"What's up, sweetie?"

"Do you still have that shovel?"

"Sure do. You want help beating Xander to death with it?" Lorelai offered.

"I wouldn't want to make you an accomplice."

"Well, I'd be supplying you with a weapon you intend to kill someone with. That's got to break some law or other."

"Probably." Rory admitted. "Still, if I do do it, I'll do it myself."

"If you do it? Honey, he left you thinking that he was dead for months. I've seen the way you've been. If you don't kill him, I will."

"He said he could explain."

"Unless he's been in a coma or lost his memory, I don't think he can."

Memory. That was the key. He'd thought it would be better for Rory if she didn't remember him. Xander seemed to be particularly stupid on that front - Rory remembered when he had once tried to keep her safe from the fact that he'd once nearly been married. Still, he was a guy, and guys did have idiocy quotas to fill.

"Well, if the explanation's no good, then I can always kill him with the shovel and then bury him with it."

Lorelai snapped her fingers. "So that's why it's a shovel! I wondered."

"It's less unwieldy than a vat of acid."

"That it is." Lorelai agreed. "So, is he coming here then?"

Rory nodded. "He said he'd take the first flight here."

"Do you want me to come? When you meet him, I mean."

"Nah. I'll have the shovel."

"Well, if you're sure..." Lorelai said dubiously.

"I am."

She wasn't.

~*~

Just over ten hours later, Xander arrived in New Haven. Giles was waiting - apparently he'd gotten Willow to work out which plane he'd taken so that he could be there to meet Xander.

However, despite Xander's best efforts to convince Giles to tell him whatever it was that Giles wanted to say, Giles refused, saying that the time wasn't right just yet. Giles drove him back to the house in New Haven that the Council owned, where both he and Xander had stayed briefly many months before.

Dawn, who had been asleep, rushed downstairs to greet Xander when their return woke her up. Xander teased her unmercifully about her Bugs Bunny pyjamas. Dawn blushed and ran upstairs, vowing revenge.

At a reasonable hour the following day, Xander called Rory. It was a perfectly functional talk, dealing with nothing more than arranging a time and a place to meet. Xander didn't want to go back to Stars Hollow, because last time he'd been there he'd broken his car out of the impound lot and carved a smiley face Taylor's lawn. Xander thought it best not to show his face there - Taylor was the Mayor after all, and with the strange laws in Stars Hollow Xander wouldn't be surprised to find himself being lynched or something.

So they arranged to meet in a park in New Haven. The fact that it just happened to be the place where he and Rory had had their first proper date was pure coincidence.

Xander purposefully got there early, because there was something that he wanted to do there.

~*~

When Rory got there, carrying the shovel, she was greeted by the sight of a massive card with coffee beans glued to it, forming the shape of a lion.

Even though Rory was more than a little annoyed at Xander, she couldn't help but smile at that.

Xander smiled widely when he saw her. "Hey, Ro-Gil. It's good to see you again."

Rory fought not to smile back, because she was annoyed at him, she was, she really was. And it was really annoying that she couldn't be as annoyed at him as she wanted to be while he was standing there grinning with a giant coffee lion next to him.

"How long did that take you?" Rory asked, gesturing at the lion.

Xander shrugged. "Most of the night. I couldn't sleep."

"Do often spend your nights gluing coffee beans into the shape of large felines?"

Xander chuckled. "You sound like a psychiatrist."

"You've got to admit that it sounds crazy."

"It does. I was going to add a speech bubble saying "Sorry" but I ran out of beans."

"Xan, you know that you're an idiot, right?"

Xander nodded. "I've been informed by an expert that I have an idiocy quota to fill. But I stick by my coffee lion. I think it's cool."

"I wasn't talking about that." Rory said seriously.

Xander stopped smiling. "I know. And I'm sorry, Rory, but you've got to understand-"

"Oh, I understand. You thought it would be for my own good if I forgot about you. Well, let me tell you, I wish that had stuck. I've been crying myself to sleep most nights since Sunnydale collapsed. I barely sleep, I work as much as I can so I don't have to think about it."

Xander rubbed his chest. "Rory, I thought you didn't remember me. I'd have been here like a shot if I'd known. As it is, I've been working like a dog training Slayers and taking every patrol I can get. I sleep even less than I used to. But, believe me, Rory, it was a thousand times worse knowing that you were alive but that you didn't remember than you thinking I was dead."

"I doubt that." Rory scoffed.

"It's true. I could've come here, and seen you. And you wouldn't know me. To you, I didn't exist. Everything we did together only happened in my memory, not yours. You wouldn't believe the existential crisis that caused."

"I thought you were dead." Rory said in a low voice. "For months, I thought you were dead. You can't imagine what that's like."

"I can. I watched my closest friend die. She was dead for months. I saw her bleed to death after being shot, too. Sure, she got better, but I've seen it. I thought she was dead. I killed my best friend after he was turned into a vampire. I saw them die, Rory. I was there. I know what that feels like. I know what it's like to have someone die. It's happened to me, too many times." Xander said, in an unbelievably flat and level tone.

Rory swung at him with the shovel. It hit him in the shoulder. Xander didn't try to move, although he did stagger a little at the impact. "Why did you leave me alone!" she shouted.

"I didn't want to, Rory. I didn't mean to. I didn't know this would happen. I didn't know you'd forget me. I would have spared you the pain, if I'd known."

Rory swung again. This time, Xander caught it and pulled, intending to yank it from Rory's hands before she actually hurt him with it. Unfortunately, he'd underestimated the strength of Rory's grip, and she was pulled towards him too. She crashed into his chest. She dropped the shovel, arms windmilling wildly to keep her balance.

Xander caught her by the shoulders and held her steady until she regained her balance. As soon as she had, he let go and took several steps back.

"I'm sorry, Rory. I didn't mean for things to be so hard for you."

Rory was angry at Xander, she wanted to hit him and shout and storm off in a huff, but some treacherous part of her couldn't help but miss the feeling of his hands on her shoulders.

"Mom wants to kill you, you know, for not telling me you were alive." she said thickly.

"I'd let her, if it would make you feel better." Xander offered.

Rory wiped her eyes. "I don't think that we need to go quite that far."

"I made a coffee lion for you and put in the middle of a public park. I think we can safely say that there's no limit to what I'd do to make you feel better."

"Don't die."

"I can manage that."

"Don't die here." Rory added.

"Well, I was planning on dying strapped to a nuclear rocket being used to destroy an alien spaceship, so not dying in a park in Connecticut isn't really much of a hardship."

"Not what I meant." Rory said. "Stay."

"Ah." Xander took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. "I don't think I can. I can stay for a while, but... things haven't stopped just because Sunnydale is gone."

"Stay anyway."

"You make a very convincing argument, Lion Girl." Xander said thoughtfully. "But I think your mother would kill me if I did."

"Stay anyway."

"Another interesting point. You're making this really difficult. Can we get back to you being mad at me? That wasn't quite so heart wrenchingly sad."

"No. Stay."

"I don't really know how to respond, Rory. You look like you're about to cry, and if you do I'll probably start too, and I've kind of been keeping everything bottled up since Sunnydale. If I start, I won't stop for at least a year."

"Xander-"

"Rory."

Rory's jaw worked as she tried to speak. All she could manage was "Goodbye."

She bent to pick up the shovel, not because it was Lorelai's and she didn't want to lose it, but because Rory felt that if she didn't have something to lean on she wouldn't be able to stand for much longer.

She walked away. Xander walked in the opposite direction. Neither of them could bring themselves to look back.

~*~

"How did it go?" Giles asked.

Xander plonked himself down on a chair. "Very rarely do I feel the need to swear, but right now I'm struggling not to curse like Spike used to when he stubbed his toe."

"That bad?"

"She asked me to stay, Giles. And it was really, really hard to say no."

Giles looked at him thoughtfully. "I think it's time for your surprise."

"Oh goody." Xander said sarcastically.

"Xander, do you know what happens when you work too hard?"

"You turn into Willow?"

"No. You crash and burn."

"Wow. Colour me surprised."

"Slayers do that a lot, particularly in their early days. They take too many patrols, push too hard. It's unhealthy, puts them off their game - and, for a Slayer, that can be fatal. Same with Watchers."

"Yeah, I knew that."

"Then there's the Slayers who see terrible things in the line of duty. I'm sure you know the kind of thing. Obviously, when there was only one of them, we couldn't really do anything to help that, but now that there's so many..."

"Giles, this sounds like you are gently leading up to sending me to therapy."

"What? No. I was talking about Slayers. Didn't you hear me talking about Slayers? You're not a Slayer, Xander. Unless there's something you've been hiding?"

"Ha. Funny. Get on with it, Giles."

"Well, now that there's so many Slayers, Buffy, Willow and I were thinking that we could have them on some kind of rotation, so that they didn't burn out and would have somewhere to recuperate."

"Uh huh. You want me to build a Slayer convalescing home."

"Partly. We do. We also want you to run it. In Stars Hollow."


	2. Chapter Two

Xander didn't get up and start pacing up and down frantically. He didn't start shouting at Giles. He was too shocked for that.

Instead, Xander calmly said "Giles, when exactly was it that you lost your mind?"

"I didn't. We've agreed that Slayers definitely need a place that they can recover from their everyday life. And, really, you're the only one who could run it."

"Build it, maybe. But Giles, I can't run something like that! I'm not a nurse, or a psychiatrist, or anything like that. How am I meant to help them, after they've gone out and seen their friends killed by vampires?"

"You don't have to be different with them, Xander. You don't have to know how to treat their problems. You just have to be normal. I think that you underestimate just how restful it is to be in a normal place with normal people. And, for whatever reason, there aren't any demons in the area, and you are the most normal person we've got who's had experience fighting the supernatural."

Xander opened his mouth to protest, but then he remembered the few short days that he'd spent in Stars Hollow the first time that he'd come by. Even though he'd been on his road trip for weeks at that point, Xander had enjoyed his time in Stars Hollow more than he had anywhere else he'd been. And not just because of Rory, either. "Okay, you might just have a point there." Xander conceded.

"And of course you'll have any help that you need."

"On to my next point - Giles, why the hell couldn't you have told me this an hour earlier? I've gone and left Rory broken hearted because I told her I couldn't stay. Damn it, Giles, that was hard. If you had told me that earlier, I could've told her that I wanted to stay. That I could stay."

"I needed to know that you wanted to stay. And I don't think that you would have, had you not known that Rory wanted you to."

"Still, Giles, you could've brought it up. This problem you've got giving out information is ridiculous. You should probably see someone about it."

"Will you take the job, Xander?"

"I-I need to talk to someone about it."

"Of course." Giles nodded.

~*~

About an hour later, Xander drove up to Lorelai's house. He knew that there was every chance that she wouldn't be there - she might be sorting out something at the Dragonfly before it opened, or at Luke's, but Xander didn't doubt Lorelai's capacity to incite a lynch mob should the occasion call for it. It would probably be for the best to get her alone.

He knocked on the door. After a minute, Lorelai opened it. "Oh. It's you." Lorelai said so coldly that Xander could feel frost in his hair.

"Can I talk to you for a moment, please? Before you slam the door or make a run for the shovel or something?"

Lorelai, who had actually been wondering if she could make it to the garage to get the shovel and back before Xander could escape in his car, nodded. "Five minutes."

Xander sighed noisily. "I actually brought you a battle axe to threaten me with, because your shovel's a little rusty and blunt, but then I thought that if you saw me carrying it up the driveway you'd probably call the police and that would make things really awkward. But it's in my trunk, I'll give you my keys and you can get it if you like."

"That won't be necessary. Yet." Lorelai said ominously.

"I mean, not that your shovel isn't a decent weapon or anything. I've got a massive bruise on my arm where Rory hit me with it, earlier." Xander rolled up his sleeve, revealing the purpling bruise spreading from his elbow to his shoulder.

"I trust that you'll be getting to the point soon enough?"

"Well, um, you probably imagined that I spent the last couple of months breaking girls' hearts and laughing at them, or something like that."

"Hmm, I admit I had this thought where you stroked a white cat while feeding girls to sharks while laughing hysterically."

Xander blinked. "Wow. Disturbing thought."

"I try my best."

"But, anyway, it hasn't been like that. Do you remember Anya? She died in Sunnydale. She didn't make it out. I lost other friends there, too. For the last couple of months I've been a mess. I've been working too hard, and I-I-I... well, it hasn't been white cats or sharks with fricking lasers on their heads, let me tell you that. And after Rory and I got into that big fight just before Christmas and she said that she never wanted to speak to me again, I didn't want her to be put through that. I thought it would be better if she didn't see me like that. I thought it would better that she thought that I was dead rather than having me coming and being broken and all that."

Lorelai looked at him for a long time. Xander suspected that the intimidating stare was just her covering up the fact that she didn't actually know what to say. Eventually, she managed "You could've at least told her you were alive, and then quietly bowed out. You could have saved her the pain she's been going through."

Xander looked down. "I know. That would've made more sense. But grief doesn't exactly help with all the sense making. I can't really defend myself, except to say that I didn't mean to hurt her. You can threaten me with my battle axe to make sure I don't do it again, if you like."

"Again? What do you mean, again?"

Xander rubbed his chest. "I've been offered a job in Stars Hollow. The company I work for wants to open a place here to help girls who've seen tragedies like what happened at Sunnydale. They want me to run it. Here. Because Stars Hollow is restful, and calm, and supposedly just the place for girls that have seen things that no one should have to see. Unfortunately, the guy who made me the offer made it after I broke Rory's heart saying I couldn't stay, because he's got a bloody idiocy quota the size of Sunnydale. But I won't take the job if you say that I shouldn't. I don't want to hurt Rory again."

"You want me to decide whether you should take the job or not?" Lorelai said incredulously.

Xander nodded. "I don't want to cause any trouble between you and Rory. Rory already asked me to stay, but... you’re important to her. If you want me gone, I'm gone."

Lorelai said thoughtfully "Do you want to stay?"

"Yes. A thousand times yes. I want to stay. I didn't want to leave in the first place. I would love to stay." Xander said vehemently.

"Do you really have a battle axe in your car?"

"I do. Do you want me to get it?"

Lorelai waved a hand. "That's not necessary. I-I think you can stay. But only because you looked so pitiful. And if you hurt Rory again, I will kill you."

Xander pointed at his face. "For future reference, this is my serious face. While I'm wearing it, I'm being serious. So you know that I'm being serious when I say that, if I hurt Rory again, I will bring you my battle axe and let you chop me to pieces with it."

"I'll hold you to that."

Xander grinned. "Thank you."

~*~

Xander didn't stop grinning as he drove to Yale. He wasn't entirely sure that he could.

He knocked on the door of Rory's dorm. There was no answer.

He guessed that Rory might be in a class, or something. He hadn't thought about that.

Xander knocked again, and called "Rory? Rory? Can you open the door?"

He heard a shuffling sound from inside, and a moment later Rory opened the door. She'd been crying. Xander stopped grinning and felt physically sick.

He did, however, hand her the toy lion that he'd stopped to buy on the way. He said simply "I can stay, Rory. I can stay. I'm not leaving again."

Rory looked down at the lion in her hand, then up at Xander. "Really?"

Xander nodded. "I've got my serious face on. I'm being serious."

Rory rubbed her head. "Did I fall asleep at some point? Am I dreaming this?"

Xander tilted his head. "You dream about me?"

Rory hesitated for a long moment, then said unconvincingly "No."

"Liar."

"That's not the point. Are you really staying?"

Xander reached out gingerly to run his fingers through Rory's hair. She shivered. "I'm really staying."

Rory took a step back, opening the door wider. "Do you want to come in?"

"I do."

~*~

They talked. Xander briefly told her that he hadn't known that Rory would forget him, but Rory refused to talk about that. They quickly moved onto other topics. They talked about Paris and her sixty year old tenured professor boyfriend, and Faith knocking Xander out. Rory warned him that Luke would probably do the same if he saw Xander. They talked about light things, and never took their eyes off each other. Rory never put down the toy lion that Xander had given her.

Eventually, Rory reluctantly said that she still had finals to prepare for. Xander realised that he hadn't yet told Giles that he was taking the job. They took their leave of each other. They didn't kiss.

~*~

"Giles!" Xander yelled, when he got back to the house in New Haven. "Giles! Where are you?"

"Dining room." Giles called back. Xander went into the dining room, where he was greeted by the sight of Giles and Dawn sitting at a table. Dawn was half way through a giant cup of coffee, which Xander couldn't help but think was a bad idea. Dawn coped nearly as badly with coffee as Willow did.

"I'm taking the job, Giles."

"Ah, good." Giles said, smiling. "I hoped you would."

"Is this job the surprising surprise that Giles unsurprisingly wants to surprisingly surprise me with in a surprise fashion?" Dawn said quickly.

Xander hesitated for a moment as he figured out what Dawn had actually said. "Yes. It is."

"Dawn, how do you like Stars Hollow?"

Dawn shrugged. "I haven't been kidnapped yet and it has a decent bookstore."

"High praise." Xander murmured.

"Would you like to finish high school here?"

Dawn thought about it. She thought about it rather less than she would've had she not just drunk rather a lot of coffee. "Sure, why not?"

"In that case, while Xander builds the building for the Slayer convalescence home, you two can live in Stars Hollow. The Council has already bought the site for the home, and two other houses side by side."

"I'm getting my own house?" Dawn squeaked.

"Technically. Xander will be next door. You're eighteen Dawn, you can legally live by yourself. Although he'll basically be your guardian. Other Scoobies will drop by now and then, but for the most part it'll be the two of you."

Xander groaned and put his head in his hands. "Oh no. Not prolonged exposure to the plague that is Dawn."

Dawn threw a spoon at him. "I'm not that bad."

"Hey, Dawn, I basically lived with you Buffy and Willow the last few months. I know how bad you are."

Dawn stuck out her tongue.

Giles watched this with amusement. "I'll be staying around for the next couple of weeks until you get properly settled in. After that, you'll be on your own."

"Well, I can always spank Dawn if she's a bad girl." Xander said brightly.

Dawn turned bright pink and ran away.

"What did I say?" Xander said innocently.

Giles gave him a long look. "I can't tell if you're peculiarly dense, or if you take some perverse pleasure in making people uncomfortable."


	3. Chapter Three

Later, Giles showed Xander and Dawn the houses they'd be living in. They seemed nice enough (although Dawn was so excited that she even had one of her own to notice if there was any flaws).

However, there was a problem with them. They had no food. Which meant they'd have to buy some.

Dawn wanted to go to Luke's, because Xander had told her how good the burgers were, but Xander thought they should get food from Doose's and eat in to adjust to their new houses.

He also wanted to see if he could give Taylor a heart attack when he showed up and announced that he was staying in town.

Eventually, Giles came down on Xander's side, because he wasn't the sort of person to eat in a diner. So they went to Doose's.

However, Stars Hollow being a small town, they had to go past Luke's anyway. Luke came outside, crossing his arms and barring the doorway. "You can't come in."

Xander shrugged. "Okay. I wasn't going to."

This didn't seem to sit well with Luke. "Where do you get off, anyway, swanning around here after what you did to Rory?"

"What?" Xander said, baffled. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb with me, boy. What kind of a man lets a girl think that he's dead for months?"

Understanding dawned. "Ah."

However, while Xander now totally understood why Luke was angry at him (he even remembered Rory telling him that Luke would be), Dawn didn't appreciate it.

"How dare you!" she yelled. "His home town, the place he lived his entire life, collapsed into a crater. His ex-fiancé died there. Some of his friends died there. How dare you yell at him for taking some to adjust and grieve!"

Luke stared at Dawn in shock. So did Xander and Giles. Dawn flushed a little and looked down at her feet.

"Hey, Luke, leave him alone." Xander and Luke looked to see Dean crossing the road. "Unless you want to have another wrestling match in the middle of the street?"

Luke's mouth opened and shut a couple of times, before he jabbed a finger at Xander and said "I'll be keeping an eye on you, kid." He went back inside.

"Sorry about that." Dean said. "This town isn't exactly disposed to like you, after what happened between you and Rory."

"It wasn't exactly my fault." Xander pointed out, scratching his chest.

"So I heard." Dean nodded at Dawn. "I think everyone did. She was probably heard all over town."

Dawn flushed a deeper shade of pink. "I'm Dawn."

"Dean."

"No, Dawn. Dean's a boy’s name."

"It's also my name." Dean said, smiling faintly. "Which is why I said it."

"How's your marriage working out with... Lindsay, isn't it?" Xander asked.

"Pretty well. Money's kind of tight, but other than that things are pretty good."

"Good, good. But what was it that you said about wrestling with Luke? Have you done it before?"

Dean smiled ruefully and lowered his head slightly. "It was back when I was dating Rory. I told her that I loved her, she didn't say it back, and we broke up for a while. Luke didn't get the whole story and did to me basically what he just did to you, only we started wrestling."

Xander's eyes narrowed. "Suddenly, I have a great desire to punch you on the nose."

"Don't worry, I'm a happily married man. You've got no competition from me." Dean laughed. Then he turned serious. "So, are you and Rory a thing, then?"

Xander shrugged uncertainly. "Honestly? I don't know what we are. As you've probably gathered things didn't end well between us, and I'm not sure where we stand now."

"I wouldn't worry. If you look over there, you'll see Mrs Patty industriously pretending that she isn't eavesdropping. Dawn's story will be all over town in about five minutes. That will get the town to stop hating you, at least a little. Especially since it was you that carved the smiley face on Taylor's lawn, which a lot of people were glad to see."

Xander cocked his head. "Why are you talking to me, anyway? If I'm as much of a social pariah in this town as you're saying."

Dean shrugged. "You're the reason I'm married. I figured I'd give you the benefit of the doubt."

"Thank you."

"That said, if you do hurt Rory again, the entire town will probably lynch you. She's well liked here. I'd even join in."

"Trust me. I have absolutely no intention of hurting Rory again." Xander said sincerely.

"Good."

~*~

"What was that?" Jess enquired, gesturing out the window with an empty plate.

"Doesn't matter." Luke said shortly.

"Oh, I think it does. If Luke the Saint loses his temper enough to go outside and yell at someone, I'm pretty sure it's a big deal. Anyway, in this town, I'll find out eventually."

"That's the guy who seemed to pick up where you left off. Breezing in and sweeping Rory off her feet and then leaving and breaking her heart. He left Rory thinking he was dead for months, ever since Sunnydale collapsed. That's where he's from."

"Really?" Jess said, thinking about Dawn, the girl who had told him that her town had fallen into a giant sink hole. It seemed like there was more than one person from Sunnydale in town. "Isn't that interesting?" he said in a soft, thoughtful voice. "Luke? I'm going out. I'll be back in a minute."

"Hey! You're meant to be helping out."

"I'm sure Liz will lend a hand." Jess said. Luke's response was lost to him because he had already gone through the door.

He followed the three people as they went into Doose's. They didn't see him.

Jess stared at a cabbage with more interest than any cabbage has ever been looked at in the history of the world, as he waited for an opportunity to talk to Dawn alone.

This came sooner than Jess might've expected, because Xander got into a heated discussion with Taylor about something to do with a lawn, and Giles joined in. Dawn, meanwhile, was looking at the coffee.

Jess timed it perfectly. He went round the corner at the same time that Dawn did, and they crashed into each other. Jess grabbed her wrist to make sure that she didn't topple over.

"Sorry, sorry." Jess said brusquely. "Oh. It's Dawn, isn't it?"

"Yup, that's me. And you're the boy with the inexplicable preference for the Brontë sisters."

"Come on, the raw emotion in Wuthering Heights is so much more powerful than anything Austen ever wrote."

"Oh, yeah, because a destructive relationship is such a lovely thing to read about." Dawn shot back. "And you can let go of my wrist now, by the way."

Jess hurriedly did so and took a step back. "Sorry. Anyway, I thought you were leaving town. What are you still doing around?"

Dawn shrugged. "Moving in, actually."

"Well, let me be the first to formally introduce you to the Hollow."

"Thank you."

"So, are you moving in with your more or less father?"

"No. I've got my own house!"

Jess raised an eyebrow. "Really? Rich kid, are you?"

Dawn flushed a little. "No, but Giles is on the board of a big company and he bought the house."

"Sugar daddy?"

"Ew! Ew ew ew ew! No! He's basically my father, the closest thing I have."

"And the other guy, is he your brother? Because you don't look related."

"What, Xander? God no. He's just a friend. Anyway, what's with the interrogation, Dostoyevsky?"

"As much as I appreciate the reference, no, I'm just nosy. It isn't every day that interesting people move in here, and I thought I'd get the inside scoop before Patty brings out the thumbscrews."

"Well, you can stick your nose somewhere else, if you don't mind. There's no story here."

"Oh, I think there is. An interesting one, too. Anyway, if you swing by Luke's at some point I'll happily convince you that the Brontës are better than Austen."

Dawn snorted. "Never. Darcy's better than Heathcliff any day."

"Seriously? Darcy's a flat, two dimensional character driven solely pride and propriety. Heathcliff has depth."

Dawn opened her mouth to argue, but Jess cut her off. "But now's not the time for that discussion. See you at Luke's."

Jess turned and left. He knew, without having to turn around, that Dawn was watching him go.

~*~

Later, after Xander, Dawn and Giles finished their dinner and retired to their respective rooms, Xander decided to call Rory. He suspected that she would still be awake cramming for her finals, and she probably needed someone to remind her to go to sleep. Besides, with the amount that Xander slept these days, he could happily spend half the night convincing Rory to go to bed. Although, admittedly, that would defeat the point.

Rory picked up immediately. "Hello?"

"Hey, Lion Girl."

"Hi."

"So, still studying?"

"Uh huh. I'm struggling not to throw The Prince across the room in disgust."

"Isn't that treason?"

"It's a book, Xander."

"Yeah, Machiavelli, I know. I'm not entirely uneducated, you know."

"Listen, Xan, I've got studying to do, so if you had something to say...?"

"Rory, do you know what time it is?"

"I'm guessing that time to get a watch isn't the answer you're looking for?"

"Nope. Rory, you should get some sleep. It's well past the time that all the other lions have gone to bed. Machiavelli will still be there in the morning."

"So will my final. Anyway, lions are nocturnal. Or crepuscular. Not sure."

"Have I mentioned how cool it is that you can drop words like... creepypustular into a sentence like that?"

"Crepuscular. It means they come out at twilight. Anyway, I doubt that you called to discuss the sleeping habits of large felines with me."

"I didn't. Ostensibly, I called to make sure that you actually went to bed so that you weren't stunned when the sun comes up and so you don't fall asleep in the middle of your final. Really, though, I wanted to ask when your last final is."

"Saturday."

"That's tomorrow."

"Is it?" Rory said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "I thought I was studying for a final in three years."

"Sorry. Anyway, I wanted to ask if I could ask you out on a date when you're free."

"Nice use of ostensibly, by the way."

"Thank you. I told you that I wasn't entirely uneducated, you know."

"Yes, you did."

Xander waited for several moments, expecting Rory to say something else. When it became clear that she wasn't going to, Xander said "You don't want to go on a date with me, do you?"

"I didn't say that."

"No, you didn't. You very conspicuously didn't say it. You went to such great lengths not to say it that you might just as well have shouted it at me."

"I'm sorry, Xander. I - I'm just not ready for that. I know, on an intellectual level, why you didn't tell me you were alive. I understand that, I do. But that doesn't mean that it didn't hurt. I - not yet, Xander. Give me time."

"Rory, I'm sorry-"

"So am I, Xander. But that doesn't change anything. I'm not ready yet."

"I-I'll wait for you, Rory."

"Thank you." Rory said, and hung up.

She carefully put down the phone, and then threw her copy of The Prince across the room. While she partly did this out of her dislike for the cynical views in it that was by no means her greatest motivation. Mostly, she did it out of anguish and emotional turmoil and about a dozen conflicting feelings that left Rory not knowing whether she had done the right thing or not.

Rory left the book on the floor, not caring that this was the only time that she had ever treated a book in a less-than-reverential manner. She got undressed and into her bed. She brought Xander's lion in as well.

Meanwhile, Xander found himself wishing that he had a radio so that he could listen to some country music. He'd have to go out and buy one in the morning.


	4. Chapter Four

Dawn had a key to Xander's house, and he had a key to hers. So, although Xander had decided to withhold the coffee that she had bought, because otherwise she'd end up bouncing off the walls, it was a simple matter to go in at some ungodly hour (because she had the same problems with sleeping that Xander did) to retrieve it.

However, she found that Xander had already beaten her to the punch. He seemed intent on drinking all the coffee she'd bought, and he had already made some sizable inroads on that front. Dawn vaguely remembered hearing once that drinking a certain amount of coffee could kill you - she wondered how close to that level Xander was.

For all that, Xander wasn't anywhere near the level of hyperactivity that Dawn would've been had she drunk that much. Instead, he was just sitting at the table, staring at it as though it was the most fascinating thing that he had ever seen.

Dawn had seen Xander like that before, just after Rory had taken the amulet and completely forgotten the fact that Xander existed. It had taken him a while then to snap out of it. She wondered what Rory had done to make Xander be this way this time.

Dawn knew that Giles had given her an amulet, in case she wanted to forget everything again. If Rory had done anything short of that, Dawn would be having harsh words with her about hurting Xander.

Dawn sat next to Xander. He didn't seem to notice that she was there until she said "Are you alright, Xan? What happened?"

"Oh, hi, Dawnie. There's still some coffee left, if you want some." Xander said in a flat monotone.

"Great, the one time you let me have some coffee is the time that I don't want it." Dawn murmured under her breath. "What's wrong?"

"She doesn't want to date me, Dawn."

"Idiot."

Xander turned to look at her. "What did I do now?"

"Not you, Xan. She's an idiot, not-"

"She has a point though, Dawn. I did hurt her, badly, I didn't mean to, but I did, and it makes sense that she wouldn't want to be hurt like that again."

"She knows it wasn't your fault, surely? She has to understand why you did what you did. If she doesn't, then she's the bloody idiot."

"Language, Dawn."

Dawn crossed her arms. "Well, she is."

Xander's lips quirked into a smile. "You're cute when you're angry. Do you know that? Like yesterday, when you yelled at Luke, that was the cutest thing I've seen in ages."

Dawn went pink. "Have you been drinking?"

"Well, yes." Xander admitted. "This is an Irish coffee."

"Why does Irish coffee make you drunk?"

"Because it's got alcohol in it. Duh."

"What? How does coffee from Ireland have alcohol in it?"

"Ireland has rain and grass and leprechauns and terrorists and Guinness. It doesn't grow coffee. Wrong climate. Irish coffee is coffee with alcohol. By the way, I'm only a little tipsy. It isn't very strong."

"Well, you shouldn't be drinking this early anyway."

Xander shrugged. "I'll drink whenever I like, missy."

"Rory isn't worth getting drunk-

"Tipsy."

"-drunk over, anyway."

Xander leant forward slightly. "And who do you suggest that I get drunk over, hmm?"

Dawn suddenly realised that she'd lost the power of speech.

"What about Anya? Tara? Buffy? My parents would probably appreciate the irony of me getting drunk because of them. Maybe I should raise a toast to them."

"You shouldn't get drunk over anyone, Xan."

Xander nodded. "Wise words. For a little girl. Except you're not. Are you? You're eighteen now. All grown up."

Dawn's breath caught in her throat.

"When did that happen? You were only fourteen five minutes ago."

"Xander, you're way more drunk than you think you are."

"No. I'm only tipsy. Not even slurring my words, see? I've got absolutely no desire to turn into a caveman."

"You should go to bed. Did you even get any sleep?"

"Nope." Xander said cheerfully. Then he leant forward conspiratorially and whispered "Hey, do you want to help me to bed?"

"Xander!"

Xander chuckled. He stood up a little unsteadily. "'m just kidding, Dawnie. I know you don't think of me like that. You're all about Spike these days."

Dawn remained seated as Xander made his way to his room, only occasionally bumping into things.

Something that Spike had used to say seemed particularly apt, given the circumstances. So Dawn thought she might as well say it.

"Oh, bugger."

~*~

When the morning properly became morning, Dawn was one of the first people in Luke's.

Luke looked at her suspiciously. "What do you want?"

"Coffee. And an omelette. And Jess."

"You'll have to do with two out of three."

"That's fine, I can live without the omelette."

"I meant Jess. That boy never surfaces this early. What do you want him for, anyway?"

"I thought we could sit upon the ground and tell sad stories about the death of kings."

"You what?"

"It's Shakespeare. You know, Richard II? It was a joke. Which I see went way over your head..."

"Your omelette will be ready in a minute." Luke said gruffly, handing Dawn her coffee. She took a giant slurp.

"I'm sorry about yesterday, by the way. I think we got off on the wrong foot. It's just that, with my home town gone and a whole bunch of people I know dead, it's kind of hard having people yell at my friend for not having kept in contact. He's lucky he's even alive - we barely made it out." Dawn said in a coffee induced rush.

Luke looked at her impassively. "Sounds tough."

"You've got no idea."

"Listen, I didn't know-"

"It doesn't matter." Dawn said dismissively. "I just thought I'd say."

~*~

Rory woke from a convoluted dream featuring Machiavelli preaching that fear is better than love, De Sade calling him an idiot for even thinking of others at all, with Spiderman popping up every now and then to say that "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" which wasn't even his catch phrase, and Rory herself randomly turning into an assortment of Kafkaesque insects.

She had a hurried breakfast and too much coffee (she felt rather more tired than she had before she had gone to bed, thanks to the action packed nature of her dream) before rushing to her final.

Rory managed to focus all her coffee-given energy to writing a fantastic response. She did this not only because she knew the subject at hand so well, but because she managed to pull points from the depths of her mind so that she didn't have to think about what she had said to Xander yesterday.

Her lion sat on the desk in front of her, like a good luck charm, and on the occasions when she stopped writing her hand automatically fondled the amulet around her neck.

When the time was up, Rory felt certain that she'd aced the test. This didn't bring her the usual euphoria that she would expect from such a success.

She knew exactly why.

Rory knew that Lorelai would be happy for her, as would Lane, and her grandparents, and Luke, and even Paris. And that was good, it really it was. Having a circle of friends who cared was important.

It was to do with the hollow ball that put pressure on her heart and constricted her lungs. Rory couldn't tell the people who she loved in a not exactly platonic way.

Dean was happily married. Jess... she didn't even know where Jess was. Xander she could talk to, but after what she'd said yesterday she didn't really feel comfortable doing that.

Still, coffee could solve a world of ills. So, once Rory had brought her stuff back home from her dorm and danced around the room with Lorelai, she went to Luke's.

Luke was there. Rory had expected that.

So was Jess. That, Rory hadn't expected.

The ball in her chest expanded until she couldn't breathe, and it felt as though her heart was going so fast and hammering so hard that her ribs would crack from the percussive force.

Then Jess saw her, and he smiled that same crooked smile that he'd always smiled, and suddenly it was a year ago and Jess had never left.

"Hey, Jess." Rory said, smiling.

"Morning, Rory." Jess said in the same casual conversational tone. "How're things?"

"Just finished my last final."

"And you did brilliantly, of course."

Rory nodded. "I did."

"Listen, I'll get some coffee and you can tell me all about it, hmm?"

Rory sat at the bar. "Sounds good."

~*~

Rory knew that she spoke to Jess. She knew that he replied. But, afterwards, she could never remember what they said. All she could remember was how right it felt to talk to him like that, just like she'd always spoken to him before he'd left. There hadn't ever been anyone who understood her interests, who got the way her mind worked, like Jess. She remembered that, technically, they'd never broken up.

However, it was that last thought that broke into the happy little bubble that she had fallen into.

Because, although Jess was the most literate person she'd ever met, and one of the few people who shared her taste in music, and despite the fact that he was the only one of her boyfriends that she had ever been able to talk to about all of that - the fact remained that Xander was easy to talk to. She hadn't had to work with him, not like she so often had with Jess.

She couldn’t talk about academics with Xander, but she could talk about anything else, and more than that, she could lark around, have fun, burst out laughing at his Valley Jesus stunts. Jess had never been like that, he had always been serious, even in his pranking. There'd never been the light hearted man-child behaviour that Xander had.

All of this went through Rory's head in the space of about a second. Some of it must've shown on her face, because Jess said "You've just realised something, and it's made you sad. What is it?"

It wasn't exactly true, though. Rory hadn't realised anything. "I-I don't know."

Jess didn't say anything. He just stayed where he was sitting, chin resting on his hand.

"I just... I can't do this. Not - I just can't."

"Why?"

That was the question, wasn't it? Rory hadn't wanted to go on a date with Xander, because she was still recovering from suddenly discovering that he was actually alive. But with Jess... Rory supposed that it was the same thing, in a way. He'd left without a word, and now he was back, and she couldn't just continue as though nothing had happened. They'd both hurt her, and she would take a while to get over that.

But what Rory actually said was "I can't, okay. I just can't."

Jess looked at her, and Rory hadn't the faintest idea what he was thinking. She wished that she knew - maybe it would help her work out what she was feeling. Eventually, he said "Fine. Let me know when you can. I'll still be here, Rory."

Rory wanted to say something, but she didn't know what. She didn't know what to think, what she was feeling, what she would do.

She supposed that she should work that out.

So she left the diner without a word. Jess watched her go.

~*~

"Hey. Wait!"

Rory turned around. She saw... oh, what was her name? She remembered Xander introducing her, back during her incredibly brief visit to Sunnydale. Dawn, that was it.

She saw Dawn leaning against the wall of the diner, one leg bent so that her foot rested on the wall. All that was missing was a trilby and a violin case and Dawn would look just like someone from a bad gangster movie.

"Oh, hello. Dawn, isn't it?"

Dawn nodded, propelling herself upright. "Can I speak to you for a moment?"

"What are you doing in town? Are you here to see Xander?"

Dawn shook her head. "Not exactly. We moved in together."

Rory's eyes widened at the implications of that. Dawn, seeing Rory's reaction, mentally replayed what she had said, realised how it must've come across, and flushed slightly. "Not like that. We're neighbours, we moved into town together."

Rory nodded, relieved (then remembered that she had no right to be). "I see."

"Anyway, I wanted to say, don't hurt him, okay? He's already kind of low since Sunnydale, and he came here mainly because of you. So, um, just leave him alone, alright?"

Rory frowned. "Are you telling me to stay away from him?"

Dawn cocked her head for a moment, and then nodded. "I guess I am."

"So you know that he's the one who moved into my home town, don't you? He's the one who came here and started things up. If anyone's doing the hurting, it's him, not me."

Dawn looked like she would've liked to argue, but she didn't. "I've said my piece. The next move is up to you."

With that, Dawn walked past Rory into the diner, intending to engage Brontë Boy in a discussion.

Meanwhile, Rory meandered aimlessly around Stars Hollow, not paying a great deal of attention to where she was going, as she was primarily trying to impose some kind of order on the emotional chaos writhing in her chest.

Eventually, she came to the bridge over the lake. And this was fitting, because it was where Rory had had one of her first proper conversations with Xander, and where she'd come so many times before with Jess.

She sat down on the edge, watching the ripples on the water and not thinking of anything very much.

Someone sat next to her. She didn't have to look to see that it was Xander.

"I'm told that this is where all the troubled teenagers end up." Xander said lightly.

"Uh huh. We get quite a few of those in Stars Hollow these days."

"Anything in particular that I can help with?"

Rory knew that she was going against what she'd said earlier, against the epiphany that she'd had at Luke's, that she was sending messages as mixed as messages could be, but, just at that moment, she didn't care. 

She swayed sideways, leaning against Xander and resting her head on his shoulder. She felt his arm wrap around her waist, and that was right, that was how it should be.

"I think you already have." Rory said simply.

Everything was calm and, for the moment at least, the hollow ball in her chest was gone.


	5. Chapter Five

As Rory leant across to rest her head on his shoulder, about a dozen things rushed through Xander's head. He wondered if she was fainting and he should catch her. He wondered if she was going to head-butt him. He wondered if she was possessed, or being influenced by magic, or if she had her body swapped with someone.

Then, when her head actually landed on his shoulder, Xander realised that he didn't actually care that much. If he was being used, at least he was being used in a nice way. He wasn't going to be sacrificed, or anything like that.

So he sat there, revelling in the weight of Rory on him, in her warmth, the way she smelt, how it felt to have his arm wrapped around her waist.

He didn't want to ruin that. He didn't want to do anything to disturb the peace. But, unfortunately, Xander had a tendency to firmly plant his foot in his mouth.

So, before Xander even knew what he was doing, he sighed and said "What are we doing?"

Rory stirred in a distracting way. "Just sitting here."

"How-how can you be here, like this? After what you said?"

"I just can."

"I fully realise that you have the capability to be here. I'm not questioning that. But... you said that you didn't want to date, to do this kind of thing."

"This-this isn't dating." Rory said, knowing that she was just trying to justify her actions and hating herself for it.

"So, I'm just a body to be used." Xander said with just a hint of bitterness. "Fair enough. That's not really new."

Rory sat up a little, turned to face Xander, realised that their faces were incredibly close together, contemplated moving closer and decided to move slightly further away instead. "I'm not using you."

"No? So you cuddle up to everyone you meet, do you? You ask people to stick around, refuse to date them, and then cuddle?"

"No, of course not-"

"Because, if you're just doing it to me, it would generally be better if we, you know, were dating. Except, of course, you turned me down. Unless you've changed your mind about that?"

Rory looked at him, and she wanted to kiss him, but the problem was, she'd wanted to kiss Jess too. She couldn't forget the way that they'd both hurt her, but when she was actually around them... she didn't care.

But she couldn't say yes. Xander saw it on her face.

"No, I didn't think you had." Xander said, softly. "Goodbye, Rory. Let me know when you actually decide something." He stood up.

She didn't want him to go. She didn't want to see him leave, not again, not another time. Rory stood up, too. "Wait!"

Xander knew he should keep on going. He knew that he shouldn't have sat down in the first place, that he should just leave Rory be, because everything to do with her didn't work out for him.

But it was Rory.

He turned around. She stood there, eyes luminous with unshed tears. "Don't go."

"I'm not the one leaving this time, Rory. I'm still standing exactly where I've always stood." Xander gestured to the space between them. "All you have to do is make the step across to where I'm standing."

Rory took a step forward. Her hand reached up as though to touch Xander, but she brought it back down again.

"Ah." Xander said softly.

Rory smiled. "I think that about covers it, yes."

"I - ah."

"Hmm. That's got to be the most tongue tying step I've ever taken."

"So you-"

"Yes."

"-and I-"

"Yes."

"-you want-"

"Yes."

Xander raised an eyebrow. "Is your answer to all my questions yes?"

"No. Just that one that you seemed to be having difficulty saying."

"Well, that's something, at least."

"Yes."

He looked at her. She looked at him. Neither of them were entirely sure what the next move was, let alone who should make it.

Then Xander gave up. There were words that would encompass what he was feeling, but now wasn't the time. Not yet.

But he wasn't just going to let the moment go. He wasn't sure if Rory actually meant what she was saying, or if she'd change her mind again, but he wasn't going to let this go. Not again.

One hand went to back of her head, twining in her hair, the other went around her waist, pulling her towards him. He leant down, and his lips brushed hers, so lightly that she wasn't even entirely certain he'd even touched them. Xander's eyes were smouldering, burning into hers, and she couldn't quite seem to catch her breath, and then he kissed her, properly, hard.

It was explosion of sensation, of his hands on her, his lips, his warmth, and his smell. She could hear everything, feel everything, and her skin felt like it was on fire where he touched her. Her scalp tingled. She moaned, and she could feel him smile against her lips.

Then it was over, so suddenly that it took Rory a while to realise that he was gone. There was a splash.

It took Rory a second to get her bearings, but when she did she saw Jess standing in front of her, and Dawn.

Xander, however, was in the lake and spitting water. Jess laughed.

Xander growled, and leapt forward, hand grabbing Jess' ankle. He pulled. Jess, caught unprepared, yelped and tried to keep his balance. To no avail. Xander pulled him in.

There was a second splash, and Dawn and Rory squeaked as the water got on them. They retreated a little while, to get out of range of what was quickly becoming a full blown water fight.

After a few seconds, Dawn turned to Rory and said "I don't know about you, but I'm enjoying this way more than I should."

Rory burst out laughing.

~*~

Jess wouldn't give up. Xander was several inches taller than he was, and heavier, and a more practiced fighter than Jess. But Jess wouldn't give up.

Xander, for his part, was baffled. He didn't know who this guy was. He hadn't seen him before. He wasn't a vampire (he was out in the sun) and he probably wasn't a demon, either. He supposed that he might be some fundamentalist who was vehemently opposed to public displays of affection, or something like that. He also briefly toyed with the idea that he was a hit man hired by Taylor as revenge for his lawn. But neither of those ideas made much sense.

Eventually, Xander got bored blocking Jess' enraged assaults. He cannoned into the smaller man, knocking him off his feet, then swam for the shore whilst Jess spluttered.

"What's his problem?" Xander asked.

It took several seconds for either of the girl's to answer. They were staring. "Um, what? Sorry? Did you say something?" Rory said eventually, in a faraway voice.

Jess got out, gave Xander a black glare, and stormed off. Well, squelched off.

Xander waved his hands in front if the girls faces. They blinked, as though they were coming out of some sort of trance. "Are you okay?"

"What? Oh, yeah, we're fine." Rory said.

Dawn grinned mischievously. "We're just enjoying the show."

"What?" Xander said, frowning. Then he looked down, taking in his soaked state. His clothes didn't really leave much to the imagination. "Oh."

"Mmm." Rory murmured.

"I - I'm going over there now. Away from creepy staring girls." Xander said, flushing a little.

They watched him go.

"Well, that was fun." Rory said after a while.

"Oh, yeah. Why'd Jess do that, anyway?"

"How do you know Jess?"

"Oh, we've met a couple of times. He persists on thinking the Brontës are better than Austen."

"He's wrong about that one. We used to argue about that a fair bit. Have you read Wharton?"

"No. Jess said I should read her, too. Is she any good?"

"Meh. I liked Age of Innocence. Not so much House of Mirth. You should try her out."

"I'll check it out. So, Jess?"

"Oh, we used to date."

"Really? Well, you've got good taste, I'll say that much."

Rory smiled. "Thank you. I think."

"Well, I'd better go and see if Xander's alright. Having us ogle him might just make his head explode."

~*~

Dawn found Xander back at his house, sadly no longer wearing form fitting wet clothes. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. No thanks to you, little miss leer."

"Detested kite, thou liest!"

"What?"

Dawn sighed. "I've really got to stop with the Shakespeare jokes. Absolutely no one ever gets them."

"Anyway, what was with that guy?"

"Jess? He's-"

"Jess? That was Jess? Ahh. Suddenly I wish I'd been a little rougher with him."

"So you know who he is, then?"

"Yeah, Rory told me. I thought he'd skipped town."

"Well, apparently he's back."

"That little..." Xander trailed off incoherently, hands squeezing in front of him as though he was wringing Jess' neck.

"I wouldn't worry, if that great big kiss you gave Rory was anything to go by, I'd say you've got nothing to worry about from him."

"You saw that, huh?" Xander said a little sheepishly.

"Oh God yes. It's not exactly the kind of thing that you can miss. You know the news about that will be all over town by now. You'll have people lining up to watch you and him have a rematch. I could sell tickets."

"Not funny, Dawn."

"No, it's not funny. It might be many things, but funny it wasn't." Dawn said, nudging Xander.

"Drop it."

Dawn pouted.

~*~

Luke's went silent when Jess squelched in, leaving a trail of watery footprints behind him. Luke sighed, told Caesar to take over, and followed Jess upstairs.

"What happened?" Luke asked.

"There was a sudden freak rainstorm right above my head." Jess said sarcastically.

"Oh, c'mon Jess. I thought we'd gotten past this whole sulky, uncommunicative teenager thing."

"Guess not." Jess said, picking up some clothes, heading into the bathroom and slamming the door.

"Come on, Jess! Tell me what happened!"

"Why? Why do you care?"

"'cause you're my nephew." Luke said simply. "If you're being plagued by freak rainstorms, I want to know about it."

For a long time, Jess stayed silent. Luke didn't think that he was going to say anything. He was just about to give up and head downstairs when Jess said "I saw Rory kissing him. That Californian guy. I-I kind of lost it, pushed him in the lake."

Luke snorted, smiling despite himself. "Well, the old ones are the best."

"Yeah, well, he pulled me in after him. Things kind of went on from there."

"Oh, Jess. You can't be the jealous guy, not after everything you did."

"I know. I didn't want to, but he was there and..."

"I saw you this morning with her, Jess. She looked happy. If you - I don't know, if you can be more like you were then, I think that's your best chance. She looked happier than I've seen her in a long time."

"If you'd seen the way she was kissing that guy, you wouldn't think I have a chance."

Luke shrugged, then realised the futility of the gesture because Jess couldn't see it. "Well, you won't have one if you act like a sullen jealous jerk, that's for sure. But then, she was happy with Dean too, and we know how that ended up."

Jess was silent for several seconds. Then he came out, more or less dry. "Right then. We've got a diner to run."


	6. Chapter Six

Rory was confused.

She'd kissed Xander (well, technically he'd kissed her, but she hadn't exactly been unwilling) after refusing to date him. It had made sense at the time, but-

No. Actually, it hadn't made sense at the time. At the time, Rory had known full well that she was throwing sense and reason out of the window. But she hadn't actually cared. She'd wanted to be kissed, and that was all there was to it.

But that wasn't all there was to the relationship. She was glad that Xander was staying, she was, but... she didn't know what to do. She wanted to take it slow - or at least she thought she did, until she was actually around him. Then she didn't want to go slow at all.

Then there was Jess, which just made everything so much more complicated. If she could just dismiss one or other of them out of hand, that would make things easier. It wouldn't solve everything, but it would solve some things, anyway.

She still felt... something for Jess. Rory hated thinking of herself as one of those stereotypical women torn between two lovers, but it was the truth. Well, sort of. She didn't feel the strong, physical reaction for Jess that she felt whenever Xander was around. But he still had the same mind he'd always had, the mind she'd fallen for, and... 

Rory really needed to figure out what she was feeling.

Maybe Lorelai could help.

~*~

"Hey, Mom." Rory called. 

Lorelai was sitting on the sofa, scribbling something on a pad (no doubt some little detail that needed to be sorted out before the Dragonfly could actually open for business). Her lips twitched when she saw her daughter, and she sat up. "Hi, sweetie. How're you doing? Get up to anything interesting in town?"

"You already know, don't you?" Rory exclaimed. "I can tell, because you're trying not to smile."

"Sorry, honey, but Babette came rushing over here to tell me all about your escapades. You can't really keep great big kisses and water sports to yourself in this town."

"That-that gwitch!"

"Yeah, you tell her. So, how was it?"

"You did not just ask that question."

"Oh, I did. I'll even ask it again, if you like. Look, I'm wearing my serious face - how was it?"

"Mom!"

"Come on, Rory, it's not every day you get to see two grown men having a fight in a lake. I want details! Spill!"

"Oh! You're talking about that! I thought you were asking about..." Rory flushed and trailed off. "Never mind."

Lorelai turned serious. "Are you sure you want to get involved with Xander, Rory? I know you like him, but he did let you think he was dead and when he came around earlier he came across as being kind of a mess because of what happened in Sunnydale."

"He came to see you?"

"Yeah. He wanted my blessing, I think. He said he wouldn't stay if I told him not to."

"Really?"

"Serious face, honey. Don't forget it. Anyway, are you sure you want to hang out with this guy?"

"No."

"Hear me out before you - what? Did you say no?"

"Yes."

"Is that a yes you said no, or you saying that yes, you said yes?"

"I'm saying yes, I said no to the first question."

"Seriously?"

"Does that shock you? You're the one who asked the question in the first place."

"Well, yeah, but I expected you to defend your decision and ignore me trying to be all Momish. I didn't expect you to cave."

"He asked me on a date, you know, after I finished my finals. I said no, I wasn't ready for that, not after the last few months. But then we met up on the bridge and... I didn't care that I'd said that. Hence the great big kiss."

"And then Jess got involved. I hear he made a big splash"

"Yeah. Well, actually, he was kind of already involved. I bet Babette didn't mention that, this morning at Luke's, Jess and I had a conversation about my life at Yale and my classes and all that. You know, like we always used to talk. And that was an awful pun, by the way."

"Oh boy."

"Uh huh. Things might be just a little tangled."

"What are you going to do about it?"

"I haven't got a clue, Mom. I'm bewildered, bemused and baffled."

"Certainly seems so. You haven't done that alliterative trio thing for years."

"This is the point where you're meant to step in and give me some sage advice or something." Rory prompted.

"Confucius say follow your heart, for it bears a remarkable resemblance to a yellow brick road."

"That's not really helpful, Mom."

"Well, how am I meant to help? You've got to make your own decisions, sweetie. I can't help you decide."

"Bah."

"I know what might, though."

"What?"

"Baskets."

"Well, if it worked for Moses..."

"What? Oh, haha. No, I mean baskets full of food."

"We're going on a picnic? Will there be teddy bears?"

"No, silly! It's that time of year when the woman of Stars Hollow prepare baskets of food, like the good housewives Taylor wishes we were, and the menfolk bid on us like cattle."

"Oh. I thought that wasn't going to happen again after Kirk and Jackson got into a fight last year."

"Honey, if everything got cancelled because Kirk did something stupid, this town would stop running within a week."

"True."

"Anyway, you can sell your heart to the boy who wins. Or end up pining for the boy who lost. Your choice. But maybe it'll put things in perspective. Or maybe not. But it'll be fun, anyway."

"Maybe."

"Besides, you've never missed a year. It would be a shame to start now." Lorelai pointed out.

"That's true. It's a tradition. I just wonder whether Xander knows about it."

"If he's seen Taylor, Babette, Patty or one of the signs Kirk's been putting up, he knows about it."

~*~

"This is the most ridiculous event I've ever seen!" Xander exclaimed, pointing at the sign written in a cursive script declaring a basket auction.

Dawn shrugged. "It makes about as much sense as most events. It's no worse than the band candy thing."

"Yeah, but I actually liked the band candy. And teenage Snyder was fun."

"Don't deny that you would like to buy Rory's basket."

"How do you manage to make buying a basket sound dirty when we're standing in front of a sign for a basket auction?"

Dawn smirked. "It's a gift. Anyway, I thought I'd join in."

Xander looked at her incredulously. "You're not serious?"

"Are you the only one who gets a serious face? Besides, if I'm going to live in this town for at least the next year, I should join in as many ridiculous events as I can. I might as well fit in."

"At least promise me you won't cook. I don't think that the world is quite ready for the concoctions that you call food."

"Oh, no. Strictly shop bought stuff for me."

"You do realise that I'll instantly hate anyone who buys you?"

Dawn elbowed him. "Ooer!"

Xander rolled his eyes. "God, you're worse than Faith!"

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"Go ahead. Just don't knock me out while you're at it."

"I'm not going to cook, so that's not very likely."

"Fine. Whatever. You go buy some stuff and put it in your basket - stop sniggering - and I'll go see if I can convince Giles to buy you. Either that or I'll have to start a harem."

"Come on, that was dirty."

"Yes. Yes it was. That's what you take, you ogling Bugs Bunny pyjama wearing Faith wannabe." Xander said triumphantly.

Dawn stuck her tongue out at him.

"Save that for the harem."

~*~

Eventually, after much convincing and even some cajoling, Xander convinced Giles to go to the auction, although Giles refused to bid on Dawn. Xander wondered how Rory would react to being in a harem.

Xander's pleasant musings about such a thing were spoiled when he noticed Jess at the auction.

His mood went up somewhat when Jess didn't bid on Rory's basket at all.

Then his mood plummeted when Jess bid on Dawn's basket. When Jess gave him a smug smile, Xander felt like punching him, dumping him in the lake and then punching him again.

Things only went downhill from there. Taylor said that only one person could buy a basket, and as Xander had already bought Rory's he couldn't buy Dawn's too.

Xander was trying to convince Giles to bid, when Dawn said "It's okay, really. I don't mind."

"What? Of course you mind. He's a jerk!"

"No, he isn't."

"He pushed me into a lake, Dawn!"

"Okay, so he's a jerk to you. He's been nice to me, even if he thinks the Brontës are better than Austen."

"He's right about that, Dawn." Giles murmured.

"Oh, not you too!" Dawn said, exasperated.

"Let her be, Xander. At least he's human, unlike that vampire a couple of years ago."

"I thought we'd agreed never to mention that. Anyway, it's too late, he's already won."

Xander crossed his arms. "I forbid it!"

Dawn patted his shoulder. "Yeah, good luck with that."

Then she went off to collect her basket and Jess.

"What was that about?" Rory said, walking up to them.

"Xander just had his first taste of a rebellious teenager." Giles explained briefly. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere less dull to be."

Rory watched him go. "You'd think he could've come up with a better excuse."

Xander shrugged. "I tore him away from his book. He gets grumpy when I do that."

"Ooh, what book?"

"Some Sumerian grimoire or other. Nothing you'd like. Or even be able to read."

"Oh."

"Anyway, I hope you'll forgive me if I say I don't like your taste in exes."

"I thought you liked Dean well enough."

"Huh. He's married to someone who isn't you. And you know full well I meant Jess."

"Can we not talk about that? You've bought me. Let's go have lunch."

"What an unusual euphemism."

"Xander!" Rory exclaimed, blushing.

"Sorry." Xander said, grinning unrepentantly. "I blame Dawn. She's a bad influence on me."

~*~

"So, I hope I didn't interrupt anything." Jess said.

Dawn snorted. "Yeah, sure."

"What?"

"You couldn't care less if you interrupted something or not."

Jess shrugged. "I couldn't care less if I ruined anything Xander does. But I wouldn't want to inconvenience you."

Dawn gave him a sideways glance. Jess saw her looking and smirked, and she looked away hurriedly. "Why'd you buy my basket, anyway?"

Jess shrugged again. "Because I'm no longer sopping wet. Because I've got a thing for blue eyed brunettes. Because you're a good conversationalist. Why shouldn't I?"

"You didn't bid on Rory."

"How observant of you." Jess said sarcastically.

"Why not?"

"It's all part of my master plan."

Dawn stopped walking. "If you bought me to make Rory jealous, I'm leaving right now."

Jess raised an eyebrow. "I didn't. I just want a good conversation with no angst."

Dawn looked at him for a long moment, then shrugged. "Fine. But you're still stuck on her."

Jess didn't even think about denying it. "I am. And you've got a crush on Xander. But that doesn't preclude us having a nice lunch together now, does it?"

"I guess not." Dawn said. Then she realised what Jess had said, and went scarlet. "I do not have a crush on Xander!"

Jess didn't say anything. He just looked at her coolly.

"Okay. Maybe a little one." Dawn conceded.

"Hey, I'm not judging here."


	7. Chapter Seven

While Jess and Dawn were having a fascinating conversation about the merits of Ayn Rand versus those of orcs (in which they came firmly down on the side of the orcs) Rory and Xander were having an entirely different conversation.

"So, does your town have a lot of events like this?" Xander asked.

"Hmm? Oh, quite a few." Rory replied, not really paying much attention.

"Can I ask how a tradition of buying someone else's basket came about?"

"I... don't know."

Xander looked at Rory closely. "Are you okay?"

"Yes."

"You just seem a little preoccupied."

"Can't a girl be preoccupied now and then?"

"Well, yeah, I suppose, but you've never been before."

"Maybe now's a good time to start then."

"Seriously, Ro-Gil, what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"You're lying."

"I am not. Nothing's wrong."

"I can only think of two reasons that would make you lie. Either you're regretting the kiss earlier, or the fact that we're on a date now."

"Xander-"

"Well, I'm not going to apologise for the kiss, because I, at least, thought it was well worth nearly drowning for. But we can keep this as a lunch between friends, if it makes you feel any better. I promise I'll be the perfect gentleman. I'm sure I can rustle up some testimonies to my lack of wandering hands."

"I-"

"For all that, I did buy you." Xander gave her a crooked smile. "For today, you're mine."

"I wasn't sorry about the kiss."

"So it is the date, then. Don't worry. I might be Batman, but I can be Bruce Wayne too. Never let it be said that I'm not a gentleman."

"I thought Wayne was exactly the kind of guy that would have wandering hands."

"Well-"

"Anyway, never mind that." Rory continued, not wanting to talk about comic book characters. "It wasn't the date, either. I'm glad about that, actually. It helped me to realise a couple of things."

"So what's the problem, then? 'cause something is definitely bothering you."

"It's just that... I realised that all that stuff is still part of your life."

"Okay, whatever you're talking about just zoomed way over my head."

"All that supernatural stuff. You know, that stuff? That's supernatural?"

"I am aware of the stuff to which you are referring, yes. But you know what I do. You know what I came here for. Here is about as far from the front lines as I can get, Rory. Nothing's going to happen here. It's a demon free zone. Besides, once the convalescence house is up and running - I really need to come up with a better name for that - there'll be a dozen Slayers around. There won't be anywhere on Earth that's safer from the supernatural than Stars Hollow."

"Then why's Giles reading a grimoire?"

"'cause that's what he does. That's what he always does. That's his thing."

"Yeah, well, his thing kind of creeps me out." Rory muttered.

"Well, um, it shouldn't. I mean, he's Giles! Sure, he might have a bit of a problem telling people things when they actually need to be told them, but he isn't some crazed wizard who uses magic just for the hell of it!"

"I know that! But, Xander, you know that this stuff freaks me out. So much so that I willingly volunteered to forget all of it. Ever since I remembered, I've kind of been way more concerned about the fact that you were probably dead than the fact that there are demons everywhere. Then you came back, and I was all wrapped up in that. Except, now, I've just been told there's some guy reading a book of spells in a town that I've lived in all my life. You can't deny that that's more than a little weird."

"Rory, I grew up in Sunnydale. Weirder stuff that that happened on a daily basis. If the worst thing you've got to worry about is some guy reading some dusty old book, then you've got it easy."

"Yeah, maybe. I mean, I know that Giles isn't going to summon a dragon or anything. But it's scary knowing that that kind of thing happens."

"Rory, I can't help you here. Giles isn't going to do anything. No one coming here is going to do anything. There are no demons here. You've got nothing to worry about." Xander paused. "But you're going to anyway, because you're just that kind of girl."

Rory looked down. "Sorry."

"Hey." Xander lifted her chin. "I spent the last few years surrounding myself with demon hunters. It's refreshing to spend time with someone who finds that scary. It's nothing to be sorry about. Just about anyone who found out about all that stuff would probably freak a hell of a lot harder than you have."

Rory put her hand over Xander's. "Well, they didn't have Valley Jesus by their side."

~*~

Sadly, Xander wasn't entirely correct. While it was true that Giles wasn't the type of person to summon a dragon just for fun, he once had been that type of person. Had he known how to do it, a dragon would've laid waste to London years ago. But he wasn't that type of man any more.

But then, there was Ethan Rayne, Giles' friend from those days and the man who had provided most of the magical power for their wilder, more dangerous escapades. Most of which had been his idea in the first place.

However, a few years ago, after spreading chaos wherever he went for decades, Ethan had been captured by the Initiative. And, after much effort, they'd managed to recondition him so that he no longer used his magic to wreak havoc, but instead used it to stop various people from doing exactly what Ethan used to do.

And now, after dealing with some drug baron and his army of zombies in Haiti, Ethan was on leave. He needed time to recuperate. He'd been on several difficult assignments in the last few months, and he needed some time to regain his full strength. Using too much magic was exceptionally draining.

Xander wasn't the only one who found that Stars Hollow was a particularly restful place.

~*~

The first thing that Ethan knew about the Scoobies being in town was when he suddenly found himself thrust up against the wall, with hands twisted in the collar of his shirt.

However, while Ethan still preferred to defend himself with magic, he'd gotten better at defending himself in hand to hand combat. Years working with the military will do that to a man. So with a twist of his arms, he broke his attackers hold and pushed him back a few steps.

It was only then that Ethan realise who his attacker was. "Ru? What the hell are you doing here?"

Giles glared at him. "I might ask you the same question."

"I'm on holiday." Ethan said with a shrug. "It's a nice town for that. You?"

"You - what - holiday?" 

"I see that Oxford education was really wasted on you. Come on, Ru, string a few words together. It's not hard."

"You're on holiday? From what?"

Ethan tapped his nose and smiled mysteriously "That's classified."

"What? You're still with the Initiative, then?"

"Oh, yes. I'm just too valuable for them to leave me to rot in some dungeon. They trained me to fight the bad guys. It's a little White Knight for my taste, but at least I get to use my magic."

"You-you're helping people?" Giles said incredulously.

"Well, yes. I'm one of you lot, now."

"Forgive me if I don't believe you."

"You can check, if you like. I'm sure you can still contact the Initiative if you try."

"Why?"

"Why would you check? So you can find out that I'm telling you the truth, of course. Really, Rupert, your mind doesn't seem to be all that sharp these days."

Giles pinched the bridge of his nose. "I meant why are you a helping people, Ethan. I thought you'd have escaped long ago."

"I'm flattered that you think so highly of me, Ru, I really am. But the military dredged up a null magician. A null magician! God knows where they found her, I thought they'd been extinct for centuries. Anyway, I'm bound most of the time. They only let me out in emergencies."

"A null magician? Really?" Giles said with interest. Then he remembered who he was talking to. "But what are you doing here, Ethan? There's no crisis here."

"Same thing you are, I imagine."

"Helping two youngsters settle in so that they can open a place for traumatized and overworked Slayers to convalesce?"

"Ah. No. I'm just here for a little rest so I can regain the old magical juice, as it were."

"But why here?"

Ethan gave him a long look. "You don't know what this place is, do you? Isn't that something?"

Giles frowned. "I'm guessing, from the way you just said that, that saying "A small town in Connecticut" isn't the answer you're looking for."

"You are entirely correct in that surmise. And, before you ask, no, I'm not going to tell you. You were always the bookish one, Ripper. It'll do you good to know that there's something you don't know."

"I don't know about synchronized swimming either, and that hasn't been any help."

"Yes, well, you're not living in a town full of synchronized swimmers."

"This conversation has suddenly taken a rather strange turn."

"You started it."

"Well. Anyway. What's wrong with this town?"

"Wrong? Nothing's wrong. Everything is just as it should be."

"But there's no demons here. No vampires. And that's odd."

"Not if you know what this place really is, no."

"You really like being cryptic, don't you?"

"Not usually. That's always been your gig. But it is kind of fun. I can see the attraction."

Giles sighed. "Get out of town, Ethan. Go have your holiday somewhere else. But you're not staying here."

Ethan shrugged, the very picture of nonchalance. "Well, if the Most Honourable and Reformed Mister Goody-Two Shoes doesn't want to share his town with me, that's fine. See if I care."

Ethan strode off without a backwards glance.

~*~

Rory was just returning from a quick dash to Luke's to get some coffee for her and Xander when an older man barrelled into her. The lid on one coffee stayed on, but the other went flying off. Fortunately, most of the scalding hot liquid missed her, only some hitting her on her left shoulder. She hissed in pain.

"Oh, I'm sorry." the man said in a British accent. "Are you alright?"

Rory dropped the now-empty coffee cup and lifted the material of her shirt from her shoulder so that it wouldn't burn quite as much. "Yeah, I'm okay."

The man produced a handkerchief (who even carried one of those around, these days?) and ineffectually dabbed at Rory's shoulder. "I'm sorry, I really am."

"Um, can you stop?"

"Sorry."

"It's fine, don't worry. It's fine. I've got to go."

"Okay, I-I'll leave you to it."

~*~

Ethan carried on walking. He was angry.

He'd reformed. He had. He hadn't done a single chaos spell for years. But Giles wouldn't believe that, he'd run Ethan out of town without a care for what Ethan had been through.

That hurt.

Especially given that, years ago, Giles had been in exactly the same position Ethan was in now. Thanks to their reckless summoning of Eyghon, someone had died. Giles had re-joined the Council, reformed - but no one had believed that someone who had done all the things Giles had done could actually reform.

And now Giles was acting towards Ethan in the exact same way the Watchers had towards Giles. The hypocrite.

Well, Giles didn't believe that he'd reformed? Ethan would show him unreformed.

He looked at the coffee-stained handkerchief in his hand. Oh yes. He'd show him.


	8. Chapter Eight

Dawn was expounding the horrors of Russian literature (which she had never had much time for, because she found it too bleak) when Jess interrupted her and said "So. There's a wedding here tomorrow."

Dawn had to wrench her mind away from the point she had been trying to make about Chekov in order to concentrate on what Jess was saying. She had become just a little carried away with the discussion - she so rarely had the chance to talk to anyone about this kind of thing. Willow was generally busy, and besides she had always been more of a science orientated girl. Giles wasn't around all that much, and Spike had only occasionally talked about poetry, when he was in particularly maudlin mood. "Yes, I know. I've been seeing that guy flail around trying to get everything ready."

"What, Kirk? Yeah, he's not exactly the best organizer in the world."

"So, was there a point to you bringing this up?"

Jess smiled wryly. "Maybe I just got tired hearing about the Russians. I was hoping I could steer the conversation over to existentialism."

"If you did, I'd greet you with cries of hatred. I can't stand that movement."

"So, you don't like Russian literature and can't stand Camus. Even though you reference him. Interesting."

Dawn shrugged. "Well, I'm a mass of interestingness. And I really doubt that you wanted to talk about philosophy."

"Hmm. Well, I'm giving the bride away tomorrow."

Dawn looked at him incredulously. "No."

"I haven't even said anything that needed a negative response. At least not yet."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "It was a cry of disbelief. Unless you got someone pregnant basically as soon as you were born - which is a horrific image by the way - you're way too young to have a daughter old enough to marry someone. So, either you are the world's youngest father or you stopped aging, and seeing as how you're out in sunlight it's obvious that you're not a vampire... yeah, you're not a father."

"Well, I can't fault your logic. However, I never actually said that I was anyone's father. Just that I was giving the bride away. The bride, incidentally, being my mother."

"Oh."

"Yeah, jumping to conclusions doesn't work all that well."

"Seemed to work for Canby."

Jess frowned. "Phantom Tollbooth? Seriously?"

"What? It's a good book!" Dawn said defensively.

"Yeah, if you're five."

"Well, you got the reference, didn't you?"

"Yeah, because I read it when I was five."

"No way do you remember something you read when you were five. Anyway, that's not the point. Why were you talking about the wedding?"

"Do you want to go?"

Dawn looked confused. "Why would I want to go to someone else's wedding? I don't even know your mom."

"With me." Jess clarified. "Do you want to go with me?"

Dawn didn't answer for a long moment. "Are you absolutely sure that you're not hanging out with me to make Rory jealous?"

"What? Where did that come from?"

"From you asking me to go to a wedding with you. About twenty minutes after confessing that you're still in love with someone else."

"Maybe I just want someone there that I can hold a decent conversation with. Even if they do like children's stories."

"Come on, you can't deny that the Tollbooth was an original idea."

"I can't help but notice that you haven't actually said yes or no." Jess said, smiling.

"Well, you haven't told me whether it's just a ploy to make Rory jealous." Dawn pointed out.

"I did, actually. You just didn't seem to be listening. Really, Dawn, first you think I'm someone's father, then you don't even listen to my answers. Maybe you should have your ears looked at."

Dawn swatted at his shoulder. "My ears are fine. And, for the record, I thought you were joking about wanting to have a decent conversationalist."

"Why?" Jess said, seriously. "I've been here for about half an hour now, talking to you. Even if your views on literature are just plain crazy. I've probably said more to you today than I did to my uncle after living with him for nearly two years."

Dawn looked at him, not entirely sure what to say. "I don't know. No one's really wanted to talk to me before."

"Really? Well, that's their loss, then."

Dawn flushed, looking down. "So, Roald Dahl?" she said, changing the subject.

"Come on, you can't compare Dahl to Juster."

"Hah! He still wrote children's books though."

"Yeah, but he also had his nose nearly cut off in a car accident. That beats Juster any day."

The pair spent some time arguing about literature - they seemed to have differing views on virtually every genre. Eventually, though, when it began to get dark, they realised that they should probably go their separate ways.

"So, you coming tomorrow?" Jess asked.

Dawn hesitated for a second, then shrugged and said "Yeah. Sure."

Jess flashed her a quick smile. "Cool. See you then."

~*~

Xander raised an eyebrow when he saw Rory coming towards him. "I know you like coffee, so much so that you feel as though you have to go rushing to Luke's to get us some, but I didn't think you liked it enough that you have to wear it."

Rory poked her tongue out at him. Xander chuckled. "Anyway, we should get you home so you can change."

"Yeah, I know. I hope I can get the stain out, I like this shirt."

"I don't know. I think you look cute in coffee." Xander said, winking at her lavisciously.

Rory brandished the other cup at him. "Don't make me throw this at you."

Xander snapped her a textbook salute. "Yes ma'am! To Casa Gilmore it is!"

"You're such a goofball." Rory said, smiling.

"Oh, I know. That's all part of my charm."

They walked back to Rory's house, Xander carrying the basket and coffee and Rory trying to keep as much of her shirt off of her without actually taking it off.

"You know, I could take a look at that, if you like. I'm not a doctor or anything, but I do know a little something about burns." Xander said, gesturing at his chest.

Rory fought down the sudden nausea she felt as she remembered the burn on Xander's chest and how he had gotten it, and instead said "That's got to be the most delicate way anyone has ever tried to get me too take my shirt off."

Xander froze for a second in misstep, then carried on. "So, did you know that Luddites were a group of people who opposed the industrial revolution? They were also known as machine breakers."

"Yeah, I did. And that's got to be the worst subject change ever."

"Incidentally, I could've asked to see if you had any gang tattoos."

"Okay, what are you talking about now? I don't think Luddites had gang tattoos."

"I'm not talking about Luddites any more. Gang tattoos was the excuse your mother used to get me out of my shirt."

Rory grimaced. "Oh my God! Why would you mention that!"

"What? That your mother saw me shirtless before you did?"

"Shut up, or I-I-I..."

"You'll do what?"

"I'll think of something later." Rory said grumpily.

"Oh, I'm quaking in my boots."

"You're not wearing boots."

"I'm quaking in my shoes, then. Boots just sound so much more dramatic."

"It's also a chain of pharmacies in Britain."

"Okay, so that makes it less dramatic." Xander said. After a moment, he said "So, have other people tried to get you to take your shirt off in less circumspect ways?"

"Oh, yes."

Xander looked at her, horrified. "They have!?"

"Yup. They're always trying it. They call me Shirtless Rory on campus."

Xander spluttered. Rory burst out laughing. "Gotcha."

Xander eventually managed to get his composure back. "Ah. I see. That was revenge."

"It was." Rory acknowledged.

"You're evil. You know that, don't you?"

Rory nodded, smirking. "I try my best."

"So you haven't taken your shirt off for anyone else?"

"No. No, I haven't taken my shirt off for anyone else, and I have no intention of doing so."

"Hah! You said else! That means you're planning on taking your shirt off for me!" Xander crowed triumphantly.

"You - that was a leading question!" Rory said, turning a bright red.

"Yes. Yes it was. And you fell for it."

Rory thought for a second about launching a flurry of strikes at him, but that hadn't worked out quite so well the last time she had tried it. So instead she stepped up close to him, nearly but not quite close enough to touch. She looked up at him, eyes wide. "Well, Xander. My shirtless form is all for you."

Then she ran away giggling as Xander remained standing where he was as though paralysed, with a stupefied expression on his face.

After about a minute, he managed to unstick his tongue from the roof of his mouth. "You're evil!" he bellowed.

"I know!" Rory called back over her shoulder.

~*~

Xander caught up with Rory before she made it to her house. He threatened to throw coffee at her, she called his bluff. He threatened revenge. Rory smiled coyly and said that he was welcome to his revenge any time he felt like it. Xander spluttered incoherently.

"You're evil!"

"So you keep saying." Rory said, opening her front door and going inside.

Xander remained uncertainly outside.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Rory said. "Come in!"

"Are you sure? Do you really want me to?"

Rory didn't hesitate. "Yes. Come in. I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want you to."

Xander came in. "I thought it might be part of some evil plan."

"I think I've had my fill of evilness for today. Wait here while I go and get changed."

"Into something more comfortable?" Xander called after her as she made her way up the stairs.

"Shut up, Valley Jesus!" Rory called back.

Xander followed her, intending to loiter around in the hallway so that he didn't have to shout to carry on the conversation. "What? Surely something not drenched in coffee has to be more comfortable?" he said innocently.

"Yeah, I'm sure that's what you meant." Rory said sarcastically. "Get your mind-"

She stopped, suddenly dizzy. She gripped the edge of her chest of draws to keep herself upright until it went away. She shook her head to clear the lingering sensation of discomfort. "Whoa." she said softly.

"You alright in there, Rory? I don't want to barge in there heroically only to find you without your clothes on." Xander paused. "Unless of course you want me to?"

"No, Xander I'm fine." Rory said. "I guess I just need to eat something. I felt a little dizzy."

"Yeah, well, try not to spill it all over yourself, okay?"

Rory rolled her eyes. "I'm sure I can manage that."

~*~

Away in his hotel room in New Haven, Ethan nodded in satisfaction. The spell was working just as he'd hoped - something that he hadn't been entirely sure of, Stars Hollow being what it was.

Now it was only a matter of time before things started to get interesting.

Ethan gingerly picked up the bust of Janus and tucked it under his bed, and settled down to scrubbing out the symbols he'd chalked onto the floor. He didn't need them anymore, although he wasn't relishing having to cut his palms every night for the next few nights. Still, how else could he get his blood?

Giles didn't think that he could change. Well, Ethan would show him. He would show him what a truly unreformed chaos magician could do. He'd show Giles change the likes of which he'd never seen.


	9. Chapter Nine

For Rory, nightmares were fairly commonplace, since the memory charm had been broken. Most of them had to do with Xander dying, but a fairly substantial amount of them had to do with the video he'd shown her that proved the existence of the supernatural.

For example, that night, Rory dreamed that she was the person whose neck had been snapped by a vampire. However, after that, the dream shifted. Rory wasn't the human anymore.

She was the vampire.

And she really enjoyed breaking that person's neck.

Then Rory woke. She didn't wake up screaming, or sit bolt upright breathing hard. She just opened her eyes. She could hear blood pounding in her ears.

Which was loud. Really, really loud. In fact, now would be the perfect opportunity to say that it was deafening.

Except that Rory could hear other things. She could hear the rustle of leaves outside, Lorelai breathing in her room, someone - Babette's cat padding around outside. That was impossible, wasn't it? She shouldn't be able to hear all that normally, let alone past the thudding in her ears.

It was difficult to think. The noise was so loud, the repetitive thumping was really getting on her nerves. Rory didn't know what to do - was she still dreaming? Was she sick?

Suddenly, everything stopped with such suddenness that Rory wondered if she had suddenly gone deaf. Until she realised that she hadn't. She'd just reverted to being able to hear exactly what a normal person could hear.

Well, that had been strange. Rory wondered what it signified. If it had been a dream, it had been extraordinarily vivid. If it was real - why had it happened? Had she somehow contracted something that made everything really, really loud?

Before Rory had a chance to think about the matter anymore, she fell asleep, exhausted.

~*~

Lorelai was mildly surprised when Rory came downstairs wearing sunglasses. Rory never wore sunglasses. Even when it was bright, she always preferred to wear a hat - or, better yet, lounge inside. With skin as pale as Rory's, staying out in the sun wasn't the best of ideas.

"You hung-over?" Lorelai asked lightly.

"Hung-over from what?"

"Well, alcohol would be the usual guess."

"I didn't drink anything."

"Are you sure? You might've gone to some wild party last night or something."

"Oh, yeah, I love partying. I'm at it all day."

"Well, then it's your own fault you're hung-over."

"That was sarcasm, Mom."

"I suspected as much, but it's difficult to tell while you're wearing sunglasses."

"I'm wearing sunglasses because everything seems really, really bright." Rory explained. "Not because I'm hung-over."

"Yeah, but everything seems bright because you're hung-over. For the record, it's cute that you don't know that."

"I didn't drink anything, Mom."

"Just so long as you didn't fall out of any windows while you were busy not drinking."

"I didn't drink anything!" Rory said indignantly.

"Whoa, no need to snap." Lorelai paused. "Hang on. Hung-over people don't snap. They stay as quiet as possible."

"Finally." Rory said acidly, making herself some coffee.

Lorelai walked up to her daughter and put her hand to Rory's forehead. Her temperature was normal. "Hmm. Maybe you're coming down with something."

Rory shrugged. "Maybe. I felt a little dizzy yesterday, and I woke up in the night because everything seemed ridiculously loud. But I've only had one symptom at a time, so far. It's weird."

"Huh. Maybe Xander spiked your food?"

"Mom!"

"What? Maybe Valley Jesus tried to turn water into coffee and didn't quite get it right."

"Mom, stop. Just... stop. I'll be fine in a bit. In fact-" Rory took off her sunglasses, squinting a little "-I'm fine right now."

"You're squinting."

"So are you."

"Am not!"

"Hmm. It must be a sympathy squint."

"Yeah, that's probably it."

"Hah! You admit that you're squinting!"

"I was thinking that your left eye was squinting in sympathy with your right."

"Nice save." Rory said absently rubbing an eye and blinking rapidly. "Anyway, I'm fine, see?" She turned to Lorelai, eyes wide.

"Oh, yeah, because fine people look permanently startled."

"They might do."

"Honey, you should stay at home. Drink lots of coffee. You'll feel as right as rain soon enough."

"Why is rain so right anyway? As opposed to, say a calculator?"

Lorelai patted Rory's shoulder. "That's my girl. You'll be as right as a calculator soon."

"I wanted to see the wedding." Rory grumbled. "It's not every day you get to see a wedding with jesters."

"Well, if you feel better later, then feel free to come on down. Just don't forget to bring your suit, Agent Smith."

"Bah, low blow."

~*~

After Lorelai left, Rory put the sunglasses back on. While it didn't seem to be quite as bright as it had been when she had woken up, it was still bright enough to be uncomfortable.

~*~

Jess wasn't surprised to find Dawn in the book shop. She was perusing a copy of Plato's Republic, and didn't seem notice when he came up behind her.

"Hey." Jess said.

"Hi, Jess." Dawn replied, without flinching in surprise or even turning around.

"How did you know it was me?"

"I've had loads of practice of figuring out who the person creeping up behind me is. Besides, I recognized your voice." Dawn answered, closing the book and then turning around.

"What do you think?" Jess said, gesturing to the book.

Dawn shrugged. "It's better in Greek."

"You read Greek?"

"I can get by. Shouldn't you be getting ready?"

"Liz is trying to get me to dress up as some renaissance pageboy or something." Jess said in disgust.

"Liz?"

"My mom."

"You don't get on?" Dawn guessed.

"I get on with her well enough. It's her boyfriends I can't stand. Although, come to think of it, the fact that she's a bit of a flake isn't that great."

"Huh, what do you know? Freud was right."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, Spike. Don't worry."

"Spike?"

Dawn looked down. "I'd like you to drop it now." she said softly.

Jess looked at her thoughtfully. "Sure."

"So, when do I get to see you dressed as a pageboy?"

"Three days after never. Anyway, if you're coming, you should at least put flowers in your hair or something."

Dawn snorted. "I was thinking of dressing as Cervantes."

"Got a neck ruff tucked away somewhere? You don't have to be accurate to the time period. You could go in a suit of armour and no one would care."

"I could probably get my hands on one of those." Dawn mused. "Although it would probably be better if you wore it, what with you being a man and all."

"Says the person perfectly willing to dress up as Cervantes."

"Hey, a knight is completely different to the guy who basically invented the modern novel."

"How?"

"Author's don't slay dragons."

"Okay, I'm going to give up on this before it gets too absurd."

"I suddenly feel as though I should leave... a long pause... between the things I'm saying."

"Don't be ridiculous, Pinter. Besides, that would be just as anachronistic. Just put flowers in your hair and have done with it."

"I could go as Maid Marian." Dawn suggested.

"It's not a costumed wedding, Dawn. Flowers are fine."

"But they're so girly!"

"I feel that I should point out to you that you are a girl."

"Well, thank you for noticing. You should know that you're about eight years too old to be a pageboy."

"Somehow, reason doesn't seem to work on Liz."

"If I find a neck ruff, you can go as Cervantes." Dawn offered.

"Thanks, but that still leaves you as the girl with flowers in your hair."

"Hmm. Sadly, I have no intention of going to California. I just came from there."

"We could just skip." Jess suggested.

"And leave your mom with no one to give her away? That's not very nice."

Jess shrugged. "Wouldn't be the first time. Or the second time. Liz tends to go through a lot of weddings."

"Still. You should go. If only so I can see you in costume."

"Oh, thanks." Jess said acidly. "Anyway, I should go. It's only a matter of time before Liz figures out I've escaped and sends her goons to bring me back."

"Goons? I doubt your mom has minions."

"Oh, you haven't met them. They're crazy."

"I doubt that too. Crazy is entirely different." Dawn said in an odd voice.

"I'm guessing that that's another thing I should drop."

"I'd appreciate it."

"You know, I'm usually the mysterious guy in this town. You're stealing my thunder."

"I am, as you so perceptively noticed, a girl. You can keep your mysterious guy deal. I can be Enigma Girl."

Jess smirked. "Whatever. Just so long as you're Enigma Girl with flowers in your hair."

Dawn stuck her tongue out at him.

"I'd better go." Jess said again. "See you later."

"See you."

~*~

Rory jumped a little when she heard someone knocking on the door. She hadn't been sleeping - it was more like she'd entered some realm of languorous stupefaction in which she was halfway between sleeping and waking. She hadn't been thinking of anything, just lying on the sofa. It had been quite pleasant.

She got up, removing her glasses - thankfully, it no longer seemed as though everything was painfully bright, and opened the door.

"Hey." Xander said cheerfully. Then her frowned. "Did you just wake up or something?"

"What? Oh, no. I was just... um, dozing, I guess."

"Uh huh. Dozing is a type of sleeping, you know." Xander pointed out. "Besides, you've got bed hair."

"Sofa hair, actually."

"Are you okay? Or do you normally take naps in the middle of the day? And, so you know, I don't usually put rhymes in what I say.

Rory waved away his concern. "Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry. What did you come over here for, anyway? And don't rhyme."

"Taylor told me that there's a town meeting tomorrow, and he said that Giles and I should go. Seemed kind of ominous. I was wondering what the deal was."

Rory shrugged. "Couldn't you have come just to see me?"

"Oh, I did. The Taylor thing was just a pretext in case Lorelai was around."

"Is there a reason that you're sneaking around behind Mom's back?" Rory said, yawning widely.

"I don't think that she really approves of u- you and me." Xander answered. "Did you stay up all night or something?"

Rory shook his head. "Nah. I'm just really tired."

"Well, maybe you should wait until it's actually dark before you go back to sleep."

"I'll try. Anyway, Mom doesn't hate you or anything. She just doesn't want you to go off and not tell me you're even alive and leave me a mess again. I don't think she disproves of us."

"I suddenly feel inordinately happy that you said us, and really guilty about the not telling you thing."

"Don't. It wasn't your fault."

"Doesn't really help much."

Rory yawned again. Xander looked at her in concern and said "Maybe you need coffee."

"I always need coffee. But I'll be fine once I get some fresh air. I'll just go and get dressed and we'll see if we can catch the wedding."

Xander blinked. "Aren't you dressed now? I should probably tell you I just had a sudden image of you wearing... well, rather less."

"I'm so glad you told me." Rory said sarcastically.

~*~

A little while later, with Rory in a dress that wouldn't look wildly out of place in a renaissance wedding, and Xander continuing his tradition of not bothering to dress up for other people's weddings, they arrived just in time for the ceremony to begin. They saw Lorelai and Luke sitting a couple of rows ahead of them. Xander noticed Dawn sitting on the edge of a row wearing a dress, which was unusual. No one who spent much time fighting vampires in Sunnydale wore dresses, because they were difficult to run in, and made kicking needlessly hard.

Then the ceremony started, and they were too busy restraining themselves to giggling quietly rather than rolling on the floor laughing when the minister came up and sang a ridiculous little ditty. Neither of them knew how everyone managed to stay so serious - any serious song containing the words "Yahtzee I'm winning" couldn't help but be laughed at. They could see Luke, Lorelai and Dawn shaking with suppressed laughter.

The vows, however, weren't funny at all. Tentatively, Xander and Rory held hands, twining their fingers together.

~*~

"I see you didn't manage to escape the page uniform." Dawn said, grinning.

Jess gave a disgusted snort. "At least I kept my trousers. They wanted me in tights. No way will I ever, ever wear tights."

"Oh, I don't know." Dawn said, eyes twinkling. "They'd show off your calves."

"My... calves? You're complimenting me on my calves? Seriously?"

"Nah, I'm just kidding. I'd just like to see you in tights."

Jess scowled. "I see you decided against putting flowers in your hair."

Dawn shrugged. "Didn't see the point, I've got some on my dress."

"A floral print doesn't exactly count."

"I haven't had any complaints." 

"Yeah, well, here's your first." Jess said, patting his pockets.

"Looking for this?" Dawn said, holding out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. Jess' lighter.

Jess took it, but didn't say anything. He just gave her a questioning look. Dawn flushed slightly. "What? You said you were cutting back."

"Which isn't really a reason for you to steal them from me."

"It's more of an excuse than I used to have."

Jess thought about pressing her for details, but he decided against it. Instead, he settled for saying "You really are an enigma."

Dawn was saved from having to answer by the appearance of Liz and TJ. "Oh, Jess. I thought you'd given those up."

"It's your boyfriends that got me started."

"I don't smoke." TJ pointed out.

"Huh."

"Well, can you at least not light up here?" Liz said plaintively.

Jess looked at the cigarette he already had halfway to his lips, put it back and said "Sure." He handed them to Dawn. "You can keep these for safe keeping."

Dawn took them automatically. Liz seemed to notice Dawn for the first time. "Oh! You must be Rory! I've heard so much about you."

Dawn was momentarily thrown, so Jess took the opportunity to answer. "This isn't Rory. This is - she's Stella."

Liz frowned. "Really? But you look so much like how Jess described you - I mean, Rory."

"Yeah, we get that a lot. What Astrophil here may not have told you is that Rory is the one over there." Dawn pointed.

"Oh." Liz said. At that moment, the band struck up a slow song. "Oh! I love this song. Come on TJ, let's dance."

Jess turned to Dawn. "Astrophil?"

"Philip Sidney."

"Yeah, I got the reference. I just thought it was a little presumptuous to call me Star-Lover, Stella."

Dawn went pink, but said nonchalantly "I thought that that was what you were going for."

"I was just making a pun on your name."

"Ah. I really hate those."

"Well-"

"Don't you dare say here comes the sun. I've heard that one way too many times."

Jess chuckled. "I wasn't going to." he lied.

"Sure." Dawn said, unconvinced.

"Well, Miss Enigmatic Kowalski, would you care to dance with me?"

Dawn frowned. "I don't dance. Not even with people who make Streetcar Named Desire references."

"Neither do I."

"So you're asking me to not dance with you? I was already doing that."

"Let me rephrase. I don't normally dance. However, on this occasion, would you like to dance with me?"

"Is this some ploy to make Rory jealous?"

"You keep suggesting that. It never is. How low your opinion of me must be."

"What is it then, it not that?"

"Well, Liz will probably harp on if I don't dance with someone. That, and it would probably really annoy Xander if I dance with you. If it makes Rory jealous, that's just a bonus. Well, that, and the fact that I'd actually quite like to dance with you. Hence the offer."

Dawn thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Sure. Just so long as you don't mind me stepping on your toes."

"I'm sure I can survive."

~*~

"Hey, Rory. You feeling better?" Lorelai asked.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. And nice suit, Luke."

"Thanks." Luke said gruffly.

Xander raised his hands. "Hang on a second. You were feeling ill? Is that why you were asleep? You should've told me. I would've confined you to bed or something."

"That's a bit extreme. It was only a little thing. And I'm fine now, I really am."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Xander. I'm fine."

"So, I see you didn't bother to suit up." Luke said to Xander, changing the subject.

Xander shrugged. "I wore a tux for my wedding. I don't really see the point in dressing up for other peoples'. Although I've got to say that I stand out less than you do here."

Luke frowned. "Your wedding?

"Uh huh. I'm sure I told you. I left her at the altar." Xander said in a too bright voice. Rory remembered that Anya had died either before or during Sunnydale's collapse - she hadn't pressed Xander for details, hoping that he would talk to her about it when he was ready. She hoped Luke didn't say anything that would stir all that up.

"Oh yeah, I remember now."

"Anyway, if I remember right, you got married and divorced." Xander said in a transparent effort to move the conversation away from Anya.

"True." Luke said, scowling a little. At that moment, the band struck up a slow song. Not wanting to discuss his impulsive, failed and brief marriage any further, he turned to Lorelai and said "Would you like to dance?"

"I thought you didn't dance."

"I'm a compulsive liar. Besides, I'd like to dance with you."

"Are you lying?"

"No."

"So you are lying!"

Luke scratched his head. "Yes?" he suggested.

"Are you lying about telling the truth or lying about your lying or telling the truth about you lying or-"

"Stop talking before you blow up the universe or something. Would you like to dance?"

Lorelai didn't reply. Luke sighed. "You can talk now."

"Yes, Luke, I'd love to dance."

Rory and Xander watched them move off. "How long has that been going on?" Xander asked.

"I don't know." Rory replied. "Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be? Besides you're the one who didn't tell me you weren't feeling well this morning."

Rory wasn't about to be shaken off that easily. "I mean, what with the talk about Anya-"

"Rory. Stop. Please. I'm fine."

"But-"

"Rory, this isn't the time or the place to talk about that. In fact, I don't want to talk about it at all."

"But-"

"Rory!"

"Okay!" Rory said, throwing up her hands. Then she said, really quickly so that Xander wouldn't have the time to interrupt her, "But, if you need to talk about it, you know I'm here, right?"

Xander sighed noisily. "Yes. Thank you."

"So, are you going to ask me to dance or what?"

"You want to dance?"

"Why, yes Xander, I thought you'd never ask."

"It was more an incredulous exclamation at you wanting to dance than me asking you to. But if you want to dance, I'm all for it. Even though it's not really my thing. Unless it's the Snoopy dance."

"You've got to show me that."

"How about a standard dance now and a Snoopy dance later?"

"You got it, Batman."

Xander took Rory's hand and lead her to the dancing area. "Wow, you've got cold hands."

~*~

"I don't know how you put up with that guy." Luke said, as they danced.

"Well, Guy is a difficult person to put up with." Lorelai nodded.

"I mean Xa-"

"I know who you meant."

"He let Rory think he was dead for months. And then he stands there flaunting the fact that he nearly got married!"

"Well, he isn't even close to marrying Rory. Besides, she isn't ready to marry yet. Anyway, if your town collapsed into a giant sinkhole, and you lost friends and family there, would you want to subject someone you... someone you had feelings for to all the anguish you felt?"

Luke sighed. "I guess not. But Jess-"

"Don't get me started on Jess. He left without a word too, you know. He's hardly a model boyfriend. In any case, he's over there dancing with that Rory lookalike." Lorelai pointed out.

"Okay! Let's stop talking about all of that. Let's just enjoy the dance, alright?"

And they did.

~*~

Away in his room, Giles was tired. He'd spent every moment since meeting Ethan combing through every book he had trying to find any reference to something in Stars Hollow. While there were plenty of mentions of various confluences of power, he couldn't find a single thing about Connecticut. But then, he only had a limited amount of books with him, and the books that might have held more information had been blown up by Caleb along with the Council. Still, there were other books he could look into.

But first, Giles had to make a call.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Buffy."

"Giles! How's things?"

Giles, as tired as he was, couldn't let that pass. "How are things."

"What?"

"Your grammar... never mind. Anyway, I wanted to ask you a favour."

"Of course. What is it?"

"Do you still know how to contact the Initiative?"

"Probably. Why?"

"I need to ask them something. And how can you probably know how to contact someone? Surely you either know or you don't."

"Giles, they're a shady government organization. They're not exactly easy to get hold off, you know? Anyway, what's the sitch?"

"Assuming that you mean situation, I need to ask them a question about... something."

"Well, that's mysterious."

"Buffy, you know how we need more magic users, given that we have Slayers everywhere and Willow can't be? Especially seeing as the ones who used to work for the Council died with it? Well, I wanted to ask the Initiative what they've done with Ethan."

"Ethan? You're kidding. That guy nearly got me killed. He nearly made me kill you! You can't be serious about recruiting him."

"It's just a thought. He is a powerful mage, after all. In any case, could you contact the Initiative and tell them I want to talk to them?"

"Okay, Giles, but I won't work with Ethan. Not after everything he's done."

Well, that was the point, wasn't it? Ethan had done bad things in the past, but did that mean that they shouldn't believe that he couldn't have reformed. Giles had. Hell, Spike had. But Giles needed proof.


	10. Chapter Ten

Rory made her way home shortly after the dance. She was feeling cold. While she knew that, for Connecticut, it wasn't exactly unusual to be cold, it was unusual in late July. She suspected that she was coming down with something.

She didn't tell Xander that. Although Rory doubted that he had been serious about constraining her to her bedroom (for bed rest! Nothing else...) she couldn't help but think that, as a result of fighting demons for years, it was perfectly natural that he be rather protective. She didn't need that - she was only feeling cold.

Xander offered to walk her back, but Rory turned him down. She didn't think that she would be able to hide the fact that she was feeling unusually cold if there wasn't a party around to distract him. Besides, if Lorelai saw him walking her back, she might take it into her head to warn Rory to be careful again. She didn't want to hear that. She was tired of being careful.

However, while she was walking back, Rory became aware of someone walking along behind her.

"Shut up, Jess." Rory said, without turning around.

"How did you know it was me?" Jess said, speeding up a little to catch up with her.

"You smell like cigarette smoke."

"Huh. I haven't even had one for three or four days."

"Guess the smell sticks around."

"Or maybe there's something going around that helps people identify other people that they can't see. You're the second person to do that today."

"Perhaps you should stop creeping up behind people." Rory suggested.

"Where's the fun in that?" Jess said with a shrug. "By the way, I hadn't actually said anything when you told me to shut up."

"Really? Well, feel free to go ahead and dazzle me with whatever sage wisdom you were going to impart."

"No need to be snippy. I was just going to ask what you're doing with that guy."

"See? Now I feel perfectly vindicated in telling you to shut up."

"I mean, it's like Dean all over again. I'm sure he's a nice guy and all, but Rory, does he actually get you? What do you talk about? What do you have in common?"

"Well, just this morning we discussed the meaning of shut up. We decided that it meant that whoever you said it to should stop talking."

"How controversial. I also see that you're avoiding the question."

"What does it matter that he doesn't know about literature? There's more to life than-"

"Does he know that you're scared of horses ever since you rode on one and it died? That you always bite your lip after you kiss someone? Rory, does he actually know you at all?"

Rory stopped walking. "Jess, he's not you. But I'm not breaking up with him over you. Not like I did with Dean. He knows me. I like him. Be satisfied with that."

"Rory-"

"By the way, don't think I didn't notice you dancing with Dawn. Looks a lot like me, don't you think?"

"She's a nice kid, Rory, but she's not you."

Rory looked upwards, searching for the right words. "Jess, I like having you around. I liked having you around even before we were dating. But I'm not going to go out with you again. I'm sorry. I don't want you to go, but don't stay if I'm the only reason. You're my friend, Jess. It could've been more than that once, but... let it go."

Jess looked at her for a second, before turning and walking away without a word. Rory didn't watch him go.

~*~

Without Rory, hanging around at the wedding party of someone he'd never met held no attraction to Xander. So he found Dawn - who was looking round for Jess, who seemed to have vanished - and went home.

"You shouldn't be around that guy, Dawn." Xander said, as they walked back.

"What, Jess?"

"No, Adolf Hitler. Of course Jess! The guy's a jerk."

"Actually, he's just a jerk to you. He's perfectly nice to me."

"You know he just asked you to the wedding to make Rory jealous, right? That's the only reason he danced with you."

Dawn thought about being indignant that Xander wouldn't think that Jess asked her to the wedding because he wanted her there, but instead just said "It takes two to tango."

Xander frowned. "What does that even mean?"

"Exactly what I said."

"Bah. I hate cryptic-ness."

"Then you really chose the wrong job."

They walked on in silence, until Dawn suddenly blurted out "What do you see in Rory?"

Xander blinked. "What? Where did that come from?"

Dawn went slightly pink, but continued anyway. "Well, I figure that I'm bound to want a boyfriend at some point, so, um, I was wondering why you like Rory. Because, you know, the only other person I could ask is Willow, and, well... Kennedy."

"And you figure that asking what I like in a girl is a good idea? Dawnie, I've had more failed relationships than your sister."

"Huh? You've only had three, she's had four."

"Well, there was Ampata, and Ms. French, and that time when every female I met crushed on me, and that time Buffy used me to make Angel jealous, and-"

"If you're counting that, I should throw in Owen and Scott Hope. I get your point, but Rory's normal. Or as normal as you're going to get. Given that I'm not gay and most of the people I spend time with are Slayers, I'll probably fall for some normal guy, so..."

"I feel I should comment on how unbelievably uncomfortable this conversation makes me."

"You dated Anya for years, and this makes you uncomfortable?"

"Yup."

"Wow. Anyway, your discomfort is noted, but answer the question anyway."

"Nope."

"I'll tell Rory you have syphilis."

"She already knows I don't. Blackmailing won't work."

"Okay, then I'll keep pestering you until you tell me how exactly she knows that you don't have a sexually transmitted disease."

"She found out when she was researching Sunnydale. She found the article about the curse. I told her it was a mistake."

"Oh. That's no fun. Tell me what you see in Rory."

"That's not even blackmail, Dawn. Big puppy dog eyes won't work either."

"I prefer kittens. Mroaw." Dawn said, swiping at him.

"Stop being cute."

"Not until you tell me."

Xander sighed. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"No."

"For the record, it's really weird that you want to know."

Weird that Dawn wanted to know what her crush wanted in a girlfriend? Yeah, not so much. "Tell me anyway."

"She's... she's sweet." Xander said eventually.

"I can be sweet."

Xander snorted. "Yeah, Dawn, leering at someone isn't sweet. If it was, Faith would give every male she met diabetes."

"I don't leer!" Dawn said. Then she added "It was just a one off thing."

"But it's not just that. She's - Rory is unspoiled. There's just this, this innocence about her. It's difficult to explain. God, this is awkward."

"I can be innocent."

Xander burst out laughing. "Dawnie, you were trying to blackmail me about two minutes ago. Besides, I've known you since you were about ten. Even if half of those memories never even happened. While you can, on occasion, be as cute as small fluffy kitten, innocence isn't your thing. Even before you started stealing everything that wasn't nailed down."

Dawn scowled. "I bet Rory isn't perfect, either."

"Probably not. But she hasn't blackmailed me yet." Xander said. "Ah, we're home. You want to come in?"

Dawn shook her head quickly. "No I-I want to, um, go to bed. I'm tired."

"But it's-"

Dawn opened her door, went through it, and shut it again so quickly that Xander didn't even have time to finish his sentence.

"-still early."

~*~

Xander went inside to see Giles sitting at the kitchen table, head resting on the book in front of him as he slept. Xander was not unused to this sight - many times, when Giles had still been a librarian, Xander had gone in in the morning to see Giles asleep there, having not gone home. Xander suspected that Giles had much the same sleeping problems as he did himself.

Sadly, the most common reason for Giles to do that had always been some upcoming apocalypse or other. Xander really hoped that that hadn't been the case this time. It hadn't been all that long since the last one.

Xander gently shook Giles awake.

"What?" Giles said sleepily, sitting up. "What's going on?"

"You tell me. What's with the research?"

Giles frowned, not yet fully awake. "Nothing is with the research. It's research. A standalone occupation."

Xander rolled his eyes. "I meant, why are you researching so hard? Is there an apocalypse in the works?"

"What? No. Is there?"

"I don't know. Isn't that why you're researching?"

"No. I was just looking for - looking at something interesting. I suppose I must have lost track of time."

"If only I didn't find that so easy to believe." Xander said, sitting down. "So, what's so interesting that it made you fall asleep?"

"Where's Dawn?" Giles said, not wanting to answer the question.

"Next door. She said she wanted to go to sleep, which is weird, because it still early."

"God save us from going to sleep at unusual times." Giles said ironically.

"Yeah, but she was awake enough to pester me about why I like Rory just before that."

Giles paused in the act of getting up. "What? You didn't tell her, did you?"

"Well, yeah, I did. She wouldn't stop pestering me."

"Oh, God. You really are dense, aren't you?"

"What? Why? What did I do?"

"She fancies you."

Xander looked at him blankly. "What?"

"Dawn fancies you. She has a crush on you. She would like to start a relationship with you. She likes you in a more than friendly way. How much more obvious can I make it?"

"I - you - what? But - her - Spike?"

"I think you underestimate the effect of him nearly raping Buffy. It's remarkably difficult to maintain attraction in the face of something like that. Hence her fancying you."

Xander put his head in his hands. "Hell. I'm really dense."

"Now he gets it." Giles said drily.

"Sh-she asked me why I like Rory so that she could do the same thing. I as good as told her that she wouldn't be able to... oh, crap."

"Precisely."

"I need to talk to her."

Giles sighed. "Much as you might treat any advice on relationships from a crusty old librarian with a bucket of salt, I'd recommend against doing that. If she's anything like Buffy, she's probably pretty upset now. Try in the morning, when she's less likely to throw something at you or start crying."

"Since when do you know anything about teenage girls?"

Giles shrugged. "Most of the time when Buffy and Willow talked about such things, I was around. One picks up a few things in those circumstances."

Xander wasn't sure that Giles was right. In fact, he was fairly sure that he wasn't. Leaving things to fester generally didn't work out.

On the other hand, going to speak to Dawn now would be incredibly awkward. Xander would much rather face her in the morning. Amongst lots of other people. In a space where he could run away, should it prove necessary.

Yeah, he was going to wait.

~*~

Dawn was watching an adaptation of Pride & Prejudice (not solely because it had a scene with Colin Firth walking around in a wet shirt) when she heard someone knock on the door.

At first, Dawn had no intention of opening the door, because opening your front door in Sunnydale after dark was basically tantamount to suicide. Then she realised that she wasn't actually in Sunnydale, so she refused to answer it because she assumed that it was Xander, and she really didn't feel like facing him just then. Then she remembered that Xander had a key, and that combined with a distaste for watching Wickham and Elizabeth flirting led her to open the door.

She was pretty surprised to find Jess standing there.

"Cigarettes?" Jess said bluntly, holding out his hand.

Dawn rummaged around in a pocket. "Here. How did you know where I live, anyway?"

Jess took the packet and the lighter, put one in his mouth and lit it with the practiced ease of a smoker. "Thanks." He turned and walked back down the path.

"Hey! Where are you going?"

"I have no destination in mind." Jess said, without stopping or even turning around.

Dawn went to go back inside, but realised that she really couldn't face watching Elizabeth and Wickham flirting. So instead she slipped on a pair of clothes, grabbed her keys and dashed outside.

"So, what's the problem?" Dawn said as she caught up. Jess might think he was walking fast, but after years patrolling with an adrenaline-filled Slayer she could keep pace with Jess even if he was sprinting.

"None of your business."

"What's the problem?"

"Still none of your business."

"What's the problem?"

"Liz just had a heart attack."

"Seriously?"

"No. Go away."

"Not until you tell me what the problem is."

Jess exhaled smoke. "Why the hell do you care?"

"Because you're the nicest person I've met in this town, and I want to know why you've suddenly become some terse, sullen guy." Dawn replied. She didn't add that, if she focused on whatever his problem was, she wouldn't have to think about Xander.

"Huh. You've got poor taste if you think I'm nice."

"I've met worse. Although anyone who prefers Heathcliff to Darcy can't be a ball of sunshine."

"I'm not going to talk literature with you, Dawn. Not now."

Dawn put her hand on his arm. "Look, Jess. I care, okay? So tell me what the bloody problem is, okay? Or else I'll keep pestering you until you tell me. Trust me, you'll tell me eventually. I'm good at pestering."

"You said bloody."

"That's what you got from what I just said?"

"Well, yeah. It was cute. And very British."

"Yeah, I'm as cute as a little fluffy kitten. And I've spent quite a bit of time with British people. Anyway, you're changing the subject."

"You noticed."

"It wasn't exactly subtle. What's the problem?"

Jess sighed. "Rory told me she sees me as a friend. That I should move on."

"Well, she is dating someone else. You might have a shot persuading her to become bigamous, but I doubt Xander will go for that one."

"She was dating someone else when I first met her. She even kissed me while she was still dating someone else."

"Okay, so you have experience stealing Rory away from others, and you're despondent because you have to do it again? I don't get it."

"She seemed a lot more... serious, I guess. Last time, with Dean, I knew that wouldn't last. But this - I don't know about this."

Dawn contemplated saying something cheery, but instead said "I asked Xander what he sees in Rory. He told me, and he as good as said that I would never be like that. That I'd never hit his criteria."

"You asked him that?" Jess said incredulously. "Are you a masochist or something?"

Dawn rubbed her wrist. "Not so much. It made sense when I asked."

"Dawn, asking that is really, really weird."

"That's what he said."

"Suddenly I feel obligated to say that it was perfectly normal."

Dawn smiled. "Nah, you don't need to. You were both right. It was stupid."

"Just because you're well-read doesn't mean that you're immune from stupidity."

"You're just as stupid. Rory's right. You should move on. Not least because if you steal her from Xander, he will quite happily kill you. Your body will never be found."

"Huh."

"So." Dawn said, changing the subject. "How do you know where I live?"

"I was stalking you. I've read that that's romantic."

"Yeah, it's really not. Usually it's just annoying."

Jess looked at her thoughtfully. "You say that as though you know for sure."

Dawn looked down. "Drop it, Jess."

"So you're allowed to pry into my life but I can't even make a simple statement? Talk about hypocrisy."

"My past is off limits."

"You tell me yours, I'll tell you mine."

"Yeah, mine's way more interesting than yours."

Jess smirked. "Prove it."

"Oh no, you're not getting me that easily."

"Well, we're back at your house." Jess said, pointing. "If you want to escape from any more questions, here's your chance."

Dawn looked at her door. Then at Jess. Then back at the door. "I might tell you eventually. But it's hard. Especially while it's all still so fresh."

Jess nodded. "I get that. Really. You can tell me when you're ready, Enigma Girl."

Dawn walked up the pathway, then hesitated before opening the door. "Do you want to come in? It's still early. We can watch Pride and Prejudice. I haven't given up on converting you."

Jess paused, then crushed his cigarette butt underfoot and walked up the pathway.


	11. Chapter Eleven

When Dawn and Jess had started watching Pride & Prejudice, it had been fairly early. When they'd come to end of the five hour adaptation, though, it was late.

To begin with, they'd talked through most of it, but as time wore on they just watched.

Jess wasn't actually sure when exactly Dawn had fallen asleep.

She hadn't fallen asleep with her head on his shoulder, or anything like that. That would be clichéd and sickeningly romantic. She was just curled into a tight ball at one end of the sofa.

Jess didn't know what to do. He briefly contemplated carrying her to her bedroom, but he didn't think he could lift her without waking her. Besides, carrying Dawn to her bedroom would be too much like what Jess would normally expect from someone inviting him in to their house at night. He very much doubted that that was Dawn's intention.

Alternatively, he could just leave. Jess was good at that. He didn't think Dawn would mind all that much. However, Jess didn't really want to do that. He was pretty comfortable sitting where he was. He was tired. Moving would be too much effort. Added to that was the fact that, as creepy as it sounded, Jess was actually enjoying watching Dawn sleep. Not that he would ever admit that to anyone. Or even to himself. But, when she was asleep, there wasn't that brittle, fragile look, as though she was just one step from breaking into a thousand pieces. She looked peaceful. Jess wondered if he looked like that himself, when he slept. He hoped so.

The third option was that he could just wake Dawn up. While it was fairly late, it wasn't yet so late that it could be called early. But Jess decided against that, too, for much the same reason that he decided against leaving.

Instead, Jess took a different path, and instead just decided to fall asleep where he sat. Jess couldn't be bothered to do anything else.

Jess was in the process of doing this when Dawn began to twitch, as cats do when they dream. She was frowning, her hands clenched as though she was making fists. Jess knew a nightmare when he saw one. He also knew that waking Dawn up wouldn't be a good idea, not if he didn't want to get punched by a not-quite-awake girl. He remembered the first night he'd stayed at Luke's. Luke had tried to wake him, and Jess had given him a bloody nose because of it.

If Dawn settled down and went back to sleep, he'd leave. He didn't think that Dawn, so desperate to maintain her enigmatic air of mystery, would want Jess to see her like this. He didn't think that she would want anyone to see her like this. But he also knew that Dawn was currently lying in a rather precarious position, so if she moved overmuch she might fall off the sofa and hurt herself. If that happened, Jess thought it would be better that he was around to help deal with whatever cuts or bruises that might lead to.

However, while Jess was thinking all of this, he failed to take into account the fact that there was a third option. Dawn might wake up. Which, indeed, she did.

She didn't sit bolt upright. She didn't scream. She wasn't even breathing heavily, although her eyes were wide and her pupils were extremely dilated.

"Are you alright?" Jess said, knowing that it was the only question he could ask, and knowing that it wasn't enough.

Dawn flinched - obviously, she'd forgotten that he was there. She sat up stiffly, looking at him. Her eyes were still wide, as though she was struggling to see absolutely everything. Eventually, when Jess had almost given up on getting a response, Dawn said "Yeah. I guess so."

Jess knew that Dawn would almost certainly rebuff him, but nevertheless he said "Do you want to talk about it? I know you might not want to, but... I'm hardly a stranger to nightmares myself."

Dawn stared at him. Jess wondered how awake she was. Suddenly, she blurted out "My sister died."

Jess felt a pit in his stomach. He knew that there'd been something, some trauma in Dawn's past. That was obvious to anyone who spent time with her. But that? Jess hadn't expected that. "Ah. I - I'm sorry." he said. He knew full well that that wasn't enough, but, really, there was nothing else that could be said in such circumstances.

Dawn gave a one-armed shrug, obviously trying to be nonchalant but not quite making it. "It's okay. She got better."

Jess cocked his head, not sure that he'd heard right. "She got better? From dying?"

Dawn nodded. "Uh huh. Once, when she was fifteen, she drowned. Got CPR, though, and she's fine. Even though she technically died. Then last year, she got shot by some misogynistic psychopath. She died again, but she got better then, too. She was only dead for a few seconds." Dawn said. Even in her sleepy state and recovering from her nightmare, Dawn knew that mentioning the time that Buffy had been dead for months wasn't the best of ideas. While Rory knew about all of that, that was no reason for her ex-boyfriend to find out about it too.

"Wow. I - wow." 

"Yeah, you should've tried living it."

"You were right. Your past is way more interesting than mine."

"Told you. You owe me a dollar."

"I don't recall making it an actual bet."

"Come on, I just told you my sister died twice. That's worth a dollar."

"Stop taking advantage of me with your vulnerability and your sofa hair." Jess said, smirking as Dawn started to comb her fingers through her hair. Then he sobered, and asked "Why did you tell me, anyway? I thought you were supposed to be all enigmatic."

Dawn shrugged. "You asked. You took advantage of my vulnerability and the fact that I wasn't awake yet and my sofa hair."

"I can forget what you said, if you like. If it was just me... taking advantage of you, then it doesn't count as you actually telling me. I'll happily let you return to being Enigma Girl, if you want."

Dawn looked at him thoughtfully. "Why? Why do you care about that? You were happily Sherlock-ing away earlier. What's with the change?"

Jess hesitated, not quite sure how to answer. "Because... I know what it's like. Not to lose a sister, even though she should probably call herself Lazarus, but to - I know what it's like. If you weren't really ready to talk about all of that, I'm happy to wait until you are. I know that, until you're ready, it's difficult to face that kind of thing."

Dawn had gotten over the Master drowning Buffy, and Warren shooting her. More or less. Compared to some of the other things they'd faced - compared to Buffy's real, longest death - those were nothing. But she couldn't talk to Jess about what had happened on the Tower. Not without explaining everything else as well. Besides, Dawn didn't think she was quite ready to face talking about that just yet. Not if she was still having nightmares about it.

"Those things... compared to some - compared to other stuff that I've been through, they're not really a big deal. I mean, Buffy didn't even tell me she'd drowned for years. I've moved past that, mostly." Dawn said slowly.

"Then why did you tell me that? Why did you tell me about your sister, rather than all that other stuff you've been through?"

"God, you should be a psychiatrist. Talk about an armour piercing question.”

"You don't have to tell me, if you don't want. Selective amnesia is still on the table."

"Because of the dream I was having. I dreamt... I dreamt my dad showed up and dragged Buffy to LA. We used to live there. He took her there, away from me-" her hands curled into fists. Except, Jess realised, they weren't fists. She was trying to hold onto her sister. "-but somewhere, at the back of my head, I know that having her live in LA, living away from me, is better, better than her being dead. In my dream, I don't remember that she's alive."

It was true. That had been the dream that Dawn had had. Only she hadn't admitted that it was Buffy's death for her, the one that lead to her being buried, that she remembered. The one where she hadn't thought that Buffy would come back.

"I'm no psychiatrist, armour piercing question aside, but I'd think that talking to someone about that might help. Someone who actually is a psychiatrist, rather than some guy who just happens to be in your living room."

Then, just like that, Dawn got it. She understood everything Xander had said, about liking Rory because she was sweet and innocent and, above all, normal. Because, whatever had happened in Jess' past (and there was obviously something) he was, compared to her, normal. She understood why Xander and Rory worked, and why Buffy and Riley had happened (even though he'd turned out not to be normal after all). Because being with a normal person was calming, relaxing, and easy. She didn't have to work at it. She could talk to Jess about Austen or about Buffy's more normal deaths, and she didn't have to worry about anything. Being around Jess was simple, and uncomplicated. He was just the guy who happened to be in her living room. He wasn't a Scooby, or a psychiatrist, or even a guidance councillor who might turn out to be a vengeance demon. He had no expectations of her.

Dawn smiled, a simple, easy smile for what felt like since the first time since Sunnydale had collapsed. "No. You're exactly the person I should be talking to right now."

Jess smiled back, although he was bemused at the sudden mood change. He guessed that Dawn had had some kind of epiphany, but he had absolutely no idea what it might be. "Well, I'm glad that I can be a sympathetic ear for you."

"Thank you, Jess."

"Well." Jess said, a little sheepishly. "I guess I should go. Unless there's anything else that you want to tell the guy who just happens to be in your living room?"

"Nah. I'm good for now. Good night, Jess."

"Night, Dawn."

~*~

When Rory woke up in the morning, she felt fine. She didn't feel cold. Everything wasn't too bright, or too loud. She guessed that she must've fought off whatever bug she'd gotten.

That is, until she went downstairs to get herself some coffee, and found herself staring at her mother's neck as though it was the most interesting thing that she had ever seen.

Rory knew that there were people with fetishes for feet or other body parts (she even understood the foot fetish. Rory remembered one memorable biology lesson at Chilton when she'd been taught that the region of the brain that received sensation from the feet was adjacent to the region for... genitalia, and sometimes there was an overlap) but necks? Lorelai's neck? Sure, being kissed on the neck was... really rather more than pleasant, but what exactly was so irresistible about Lorelai's neck?

Lorelai caught her looking, frowned and said "Is there something on my neck? I haven't had a hickey, I swear."

With great difficulty, Rory managed to wrench her gaze away from Lorelai's neck. "Mom, I really don't want to know whether you've got a hickey or not."

"I'd be wearing a scarf if I had. If I'm wearing a scarf in July-"

"Mom! Too much information! I don't want to know that!"

"Well, it's not like it's going to be long before Xander's giving you hickeys, not if those looks you were giving each other yesterday were anything to go by."

Rory didn't reply.

"What? Cat got your tongue?"

Rory shook her head. "No, I was just waiting for you to say that I should go slow, or better yet stay away from him."

"Well, the going slow thing goes without saying. But I thought I should give him the benefit of the doubt. He obviously cares about you, Rory."

"That's magnanimous of you."

"Oh, yeah, I've got magnanimity pouring out of me."

Rory changed the subject. "So, how long has you and Luke been going on? And speaking of Luke, how about we head over there for breakfast?"

"Sounds good."

~*~

As the pair walked to Luke's, Rory only half listened to Lorelai tell her about how she thought that Luke asking her to Liz's wedding had been a date, hence the dancing, but she wasn't entirely sure, because Luke hadn't been clear. The rest of Rory's attention was taken up with the necks walking by. There wasn't anything interesting about them, or even anything out of the ordinary about them. Rory just knew that they were there. It was distracting.

She walked into Luke's, noticed that Jess went still but didn't run away from her (she should've remembered that he would be here) and ordered coffee and a muffin while staring at Luke's neck.

"Coming right up. You alright there, Dracula?"

Oh.

~*~

At around the same time, there was a knock on Xander's door. Giles answered it.

It was Riley.

"Oh, hello there, Riley. Buffy contacted you?"

Riley nodded. "She did. I thought, seeing as how I was in New Haven anyway, I should come down and tell you that you can't have Rayne. He's too useful."

Giles shut the door behind him. He didn't know where Xander was, but he could be back at any moment. He didn't want Xander getting involved in this. It was none of his business. "Let's go for a walk, shall we?" Giles suggested.

"Sure. But you won't change my mind."

"Actually, the truth is I have no intention of recruiting Ethan. That was just something I told Buffy so that she would contact you. The real reason that I'm suddenly interested in all of this is because I... met Ethan the other day. Here, in Stars Hollow."

"Ah. I rather thought that you might have."

"He told you?" Giles asked surprised.

"No. But Ethan originally intended to spend some time here. When he suggested that we relocate to New Haven, and then Buffy told me you were here, I put two and two together."

"Ethan told me he'd reformed. I-I didn't believe him, I ran him out of town. But since then - I've been wondering if I was too hasty. After all, people can change. I changed. I thought I should give him the benefit of the doubt."

"He talks about you, you know. About all the things that you did, in the past." Riley commented.

"Hmm. They were fun, but I'm not going there again. I've been down that path, and I didn't like where it led. I just want to see whether Ethan has decided to go down mine."

"He has reformed. He's been on the straight and narrow for nearly two years now. Hasn't performed a single chaos spell."

Giles sighed and rubbed his face. "Ah."

"You should talk to him."

"What? I doubt he'll want to see me, after what I said."

"Giles. He'll want to see you. From what he's said - which isn't much, he's a pretty secretive guy - you're his best friend. I'm sure he'd be glad to see you."

Giles hesitated for a fraction of a second, then said "Could you tell me where he is?"


	12. Chapter Twelve

When Dawn went left her house that morning, she was rather surprised to find Xander sitting in an armchair on her pathway, reading a Batman comic.

"Did I miss something?" Dawn asked. "Were we meant to meet today for some reason or other?"

"No. I just wanted to talk to you." Xander said, putting the comic down.

"You know that you have the key to my house, right? You don't need to lurk around outside like a really conspicuous stalker."

"I didn't think that it would really be appropriate for me to come into your house."

"Why? We lived in the same house for most of this year. Besides, I don't actually need a chaperone. This isn't Victorian England."

"Yeah, but while we were living in Sunnydale, I didn't know that you had a crush on me." Xander pointed out.

"Ah. You figured it out."

"Actually, no. I'm peculiarly dense on that front. Giles told me. I thought you were still hung up on Spike."

"You're kidding? The stuffy British guy worked it out before you?"

Xander rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, rub it in."

"Oh, I will." Dawn said. "Can we change the subject now? I feel awkward standing here talking about the crush I have on you."

"You think it's awkward? How do you think I feel?"

"Flattered?"

"No! Well, maybe a little bit. But that's not the point. We should talk about it."

"Why? What is there to say?"

Xander rubbed his chest absently. "I don't know. I've never had to have this conversation before."

"Couldn't we just... not have it?" Dawn suggested.

"Well, that's a possibility, but given that we live next door and we're going to be seeing each other every day, that might make things even more awkward."

"Is that even possible?"

"I don't know. At the moment I'm willing to try and find out."

"Cool. Let's just pretend you never found out."

"It's kind of hard to forget that you have a crush on me, Dawn. Besides, what do I tell Rory?"

"That you want a harem?"

Xander's eyes went glassy. "Uh, no. Bad idea."

"You seem to be enjoying thinking about it, though." Dawn said archly.

"God, Dawn, have you been taking lessons from Faith or something?"

"Nah. It's a gift."

"Well, can you not? This is already making me uncomfortable, you acting like mini-Faith isn't helping."

"I'll try and keep it to a minimum." Dawn promised. "But, really, there's nothing to say. You've got a girlfriend. Unless you actually start a harem, this isn't going to go anywhere. Unless you're secretly a Mormon."

"What?"

"Forget I said anything. Forget Giles told you anything. It's the easiest thing for both of us."

"Yeah, but there's you crushing on me, and then Jess hasn't moved on from Rory... it's like some soap opera, or something."

"So? There isn't anything that you can do about it."

"Well, I suppose it's better than an apocalypse."

"Yeah, but at least those don't have a love quadrangle. They're a lot simpler."

"True. Couldn't you at least get Pitt the Younger to stop using you to make Rory jealous?"

Dawn cocked her head. "Pitt the Younger?"

Xander smirked. "You're a bright girl. Work it out."

"I will, but you're making history references. You."

"What? I can't have layers?"

"I guess so, Onion."

"By the way, about that stuff I said yesterday."

"Hmm?" Dawn said, thinking about telling Jess about Buffy. "What did you say?"

"That stuff I said about you not being innocent or sweet. You are - or you can be, when you're trying not to be mini-Faith."

"Oh, Xander, please stop or I'll think that you're flirting with me."

"That's the kind of thing I mean."

Dawn shrugged. "Meh. That's who I am. If that doesn't appeal to you, perhaps it's for the best that you're dating Rory."

"Yeah, but you've still got a craving for Xander meat, don't you?"

Dawn went bright red. "You did not just say that."

Xander mentally reviewed what he said and went a similar bright shade of pink. "I should just stop talking now. I should take a vow of silence."

"That might be for the best." Dawn agreed.

~*~

When Luke called Rory Dracula, she suddenly went as white as - well, he was already using vampiric imagery, so he might as well run with it - she suddenly went as white as someone who had had all their blood drained. Then she rushed out.

"Wow, Luke." Jess called from across the room. "You sure know how to make a girl run."

Luke shot him a black look and turned to look at Lorelai, about to ask what the problem was, only to see a blank expression on her face that mirrored his own.

~*~

Rory breathed deeply, trying to calm down. Okay. She couldn't really be turning into a vampire. That made no sense. To be turned, you needed to have actually been around a vampire first. Rory hadn't even ever met one. Besides, Xander had told her that vampires were essentially walking corpses animated by a demon. She wasn't dead. Sure, she had been cold, like a vampire, and had supernaturally good hearing, like a vampire, and had found everything too bright, presumably because her eyes were becoming attuned to seeing in the dark like a vampire, and she was suddenly noticing everyone's necks...

Oh God, she was turning into a vampire. 

Rory needed to find Xander.

~*~

Rory nearly ran over Giles in her haste to get to Xander's house. "Whoa, Rory, what's the rush?" Giles asked, steadying her before she fell over.

"I-I need to find Xander. There's something I need to tell him." Rory said as quickly as she could.

Then, everything slowed down. Rory became acutely aware of the fact that she could feel Giles' pulse beating in the wrist that she had instinctively grasped for balance. She imagined the blood rushing around his body, so thick and...

Oh, but she was thirsty. She really wanted some coffee.

Hang on. Coffee? Vampires weren't known for drinking coffee. They were known for drinking something else entirely.

Rory imagined sinking her teeth into Giles' throat, and nearly vomited from the sickening image that evoked.

Okay. So the transformation wasn't complete. Obviously, otherwise she would've burst into flames long ago. The sun was beating down on her.

"I don't know where Xander is." Giles said, breaking Rory's train of thought. "He's not at the house. You could try Dawn, she might know, or look around. There's not much town to search through here."

"Thanks, Giles." Rory said, letting go of his wrist. She ran her tongue over her teeth. They seemed normal. They didn't seem any longer than they should do.

Although, come to think about it, the sun was really hot. Really, really hot. Hot like a Grecian summer. If she didn't put some sun cream on soon, she'd burn.

Oh.

Rory rapidly knocked on Dawn's door. Xander opened it. Rory came tumbling through the door, sighing in relief at getting out of the scorching sun.

"Wow. I guess you must be really glad to see me." Xander said drily.

~*~

"So." Dawn said, slipping into a chair at the bar at Luke's. "Why would anyone call you Pitt the Younger?"

"Haven't a clue." Jess replied, taking the order of the person a couple of seats down from Dawn. "Who's Pitt the Younger?"

"Hah! I know something you don't know!" Dawn said exultantly, happy that the guy who'd understood every literary reference that she made didn't know everything.

"Did you know that it takes about 90 seconds to die from having a broken bottle shoved in your neck?" Jess said without looking at Dawn.

"Actually-" the guy that Jess was taking the order from began.

"Shut up, Kirk." Jess said shortly.

"Are you saying that from experience?"

"Do I look like I've been stabbed in the neck by a broken bottle?" Jess said drily, moving away to give Cesar Kirk's order.

"No, I mean have you seen someone die that way?"

"Yup." Jess said shortly. "You want to order something?"

Dawn blinked, thrown by the nonchalance and the sudden subject change. "You-you saw that?"

Jess rolled his eyes. "Yup. And someone whose sister should have a revolving door on her coffin shouldn't be so surprised that people die."

"Oh, I know people die. But generally the people who - well, the people who don't die are lot less calm about it."

Jess shrugged. "It was a long time ago."

"Yeah, but you're nineteen. The fact that it was a long time ago is hardly a comfort."

Jess shrugged again. "I've spent most of the last year bumming around the country getting over things before I came back here."

"You mean that there's more?" Dawn said in surprise.

"Yup. Told you I had an interesting past."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Dawn said, extending the same offer that Jess had made to her.

"No. But not for the same reason that you don't want to talk about all the stuff that happened to you. I've moved on."

Dawn didn't believe that, but she decided not to press the subject. Especially not with Kirk gawping at them as though he was a gold fish.

Seeking to change the subject, Dawn said "Pitt the Younger was a British Prime Minister."

"I flunked history."

"I only know that because I saw a film once, The Madness of King George. History isn't exactly a strong suit in my family either."

"Well, I have no idea why someone might call me that."

"Oh well." Dawn sighed. "I'll have an omelette."

~*~

"I think I'm turning into a vampire." Rory said simply.

Xander looked at her intently for a long moment. "Have you been drinking?"

"No. Listen, I-"

"Rory, there aren't any vampires in Stars Hollow. Besides, while someone turns into a vampire, they're dead. Living people don't turn into vampires. And you just walked in from the sun. You're not turning into a vampire."

"Then why do I feel so cold?" Rory asked, peeling back her sleeves. "And what's this?"

Xander looked at her arms. "Sunburn?"

"Yeah, that I got on the way from Luke's to here. Either the Sun is suddenly a lot hotter than it normally is, or I'm a lot more sensitive."

"Rory, getting sunburned doesn't mean that you're a vampire. You've got pale skin, and pale skinned people do have a tendency to burn."

"Xander, how can you be a sceptic? You? After everything you've seen? Can't you just accept that it's possible that, somehow, I'm turning into a vampire?"

"Fine!" Xander said, throwing up his hands. He clearly didn't believe that Rory was turning, but there wasn't any harm in checking. "I've probably got some holy water around here somewhere."

~*~

Ethan heard someone knocking on his hotel room's door. Assuming that it was room service, Ethan put down his book and opened it.

"Hello, Ethan." Giles said.

Ethan, without saying a word, closed the door, went back to his bed and picked up his book.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Ethan wasn't really concentrating on his book. It was difficult to do that when there's someone outside your door that you're not entirely sure whether you should be pleased to see or not.

Ethan had just reread the same line at least five times without getting any closer to figuring out what it actually said when there came a faint scratching at the door.

Despite himself, Ethan couldn't help smiling a little at that. So, Giles was on the straight and narrow, was he? Then someone must've changed the definition of 'straight and narrow' when Ethan wasn't looking, because he was pretty sure that the good guys weren't supposed to pick locks.

On the other hand, maybe it didn't count if they weren't very good at it. Apparently Giles needed some more practice with the skills he'd picked up as a result of a misspent youth.

However, Giles was bound to crack the lock eventually. Either that or he'd lurk outside and ambush Ethan when he finally left the room. Ethan should probably deal with him now. Although he didn't think Giles would accept Ethan telling him to bugger off.

Ethan opened his door, hoping that catching Giles in the act of lock picking might wrong-foot him. No such luck - Giles straightened from his crouch utterly unabashed.

Ethan sighed. "I don't suppose that telling you to go to hell would result in you making a short trip of an infernal nature?"

Giles shook his head. "It wouldn't."

"So, you've come by to moralise me some more, then? Because, Ru, I could really do without that."

"Actually, I wanted to apologize."

Ethan raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"I might have been a little... hasty in my judgment of you before. I know that people can change. I could've at least given you the benefit of the doubt."

"Okay. You've said sorry. Now go away." Ethan said, shutting his door.

Giles quickly shoved his foot through the doorway, making the door rebound off of it. "I-I figured out how hypocritical I was being. I know that the Watchers weren't exactly understanding after Randall died, and then I turned around and acted exactly the same way towards you. I'm sorry."

"You've made your remorse abundantly clear, Rupert." Ethan said coldly. "Now kindly remove your foot before I curse you into oblivion."

Giles frowned. "I don't think you're really in a position to be so unforgiving. After all, you turned me into a demon and mentally regressed me to a teenager. I don't think you nearly killing me is equal to me being a tad hypocritical."

"Yeah, but that thing with the band candy led to you having sex with the Slayer's mum. I think that makes up for turning you into a Fyarl."

"Yes? Well, what about tattooing Buffy so that Eyghon would go after her? Or turning her into a-"

"Oh, shut up, you sanctimonious prat." Ethan snapped. "How dare you come here to say sorry and then attack me for everything I've done. You're hardly blameless yourself, are you, Ripper? You weren't exactly saintly even after you went crawling back to the Watchers."

"Do you know how many people died from your Halloween stunt alone? Nothing I've done compares to that!"

"Oh, sure. Because towns just collapse all by themselves, don't they? Yeah, it looks like you did a great job keeping Sunnydale safe."

"That wasn't my fault! The First Evil-"

"Rupert, I don't care! I don't want you here reminding me of all the things I've done! I don't do those kinds of things anymore." Ethan said, thinking a little guiltily of the bust of Janus that was even now anchoring the spell he'd cast on that girl in Stars Hollow. "I don't need you to be my conscience. I've got the Finns for that. So, do me a favour, and leave me alone."

"No."

Ethan sighed noisily. "What the hell do you want now? Why can't you just leave me in peace?"

"I want - Ethan, we were always friends. Even when you were a chaos mage, we had drinks together. Even if you did turn me into a Fyarl shortly after that. But now that you're a good guy... well, do you want to go out for a drink?"

Ethan looked at him incredulously. "Are you serious?"

Giles nodded. "As Canis Major."

"Why?"

Giles reposition his glasses slightly. "Uh, I'm sure I explained that. I could say it again if you didn't catch it."

"No, I heard what you said, but we've just been having a flaming row in the middle of a hotel corridor - by the way, everyone in these rooms probably think we're crazy, talking about magic and demons and all that - and now you're asking me out for a drink. In the morning, I might add. Seems like a bit of a turnaround."

"Well, that's what I originally came to ask, but you were so damned stubborn-"

"Don't start."

"Anyway, I thought I might as well ask."

"It's a bit early to start drinking for me."

"We could get tea."

"American tea is awful."

Giles' lips quirked into a small smile. "I still remember that charm you taught me. We can have a decent cup of proper tea if you want."

Ethan hesitated for a moment, before saying "Sure. Just give me a second to put on some shoes."

~*~

While Xander went hunting for some holy water, Rory sat on the sofa, quietly panicking.

She didn't know if she wanted the holy water to burn her or not. If it did, then she was somehow turning into a vampire. Hopefully, that could be treated and she would turn back into a human (Rory knew that Willow was a powerful witch, maybe she could do something) and then all that would be left would her having a major freak out about nearly becoming a soulless killing machine. She didn't know if she could deal with that - she'd opted for forgetting the whole supernatural situation before. If it turned out that she was turning into a vampire, Rory couldn't be sure that she wouldn't decide to do that again. That world scared the hell out of her.

Then again, if the holy water didn't burn her, that wouldn't necessarily prove anything. Rory wasn't yet fully a vampire, although she had some of... some of the symptoms of vampirehood. However, so far she had never had more than two at once. For example, right now, she could easily hear Xander moving around upstairs. If she focused she could even hear the blood rushing through his veins. She also suspected that going out in the sun wouldn't be the best of ideas. It was possible that she wouldn't yet be susceptible to holy water. She'd managed to enter Xander's house without an invitation, after all.

Rory didn't know which was better. Either she had some strange disease that had symptoms eerily similar to the abilities and handicaps of a vampire, or she was actually turning into a vampire. Both of those options terrified her.

After a couple of minutes, Xander came back with an absolutely normal plastic water bottle. It even had the brand label on it. "Are you ready?" Xander asked gently.

Rory, being not quite capable of speech at the moment, merely nodded.

Xander unscrewed the cap and splashed a little water on Rory's outstretched hand. Rory hissed at the sudden rush of heat, and the pale skin of her palm rapidly turned an angry, burnt red.

~*~

Jess was in the middle of taking an order when Luke called out "Cesar, can you handle things for a couple of minutes?" and, without waiting for Cesar to respond, grabbed Jess by the shoulder and steered him upstairs.

Luke sat on the edge of his bed. Jess remained standing. Luke looked like he had difficulty figuring out what he wanted to say, but eventually managed "Is it true?"

"No."

Luke looked at him in amazement. "It-it's not? Then why would you say something like that? Why would you say that to that girl? She clearly believed you."

"Oh, we're talking about me telling Dawn about seeing someone stabbed in the neck by a broken bottle, are we?"

"Yes. What did you think we were talking about?"

Jess shrugged. "Could've been any one of a number of things, really. I find it's best to deny everything."

"You - so, is it true, then?" Luke asked again, just a hint of exasperation creeping into his voice.

For a second, Jess thought about lying, but quickly realised that there wasn't really any point. "Yeah, that's true."

"What - why didn't you say anything?"

"It's not exactly the kind of thing that crops up in a conversation."

"You managed to bring it up when you were talking to Dawn." Luke pointed out.

"Yeah, well." Jess gave an inarticulate shrug. How could he explain that he had felt that he owed Dawn something for telling him about her sister, for peeling back her enigmatic shell, even if it was only for a moment?

"You should've told me."

"Why?" Jess asked. He wasn't being insolent. He just genuinely didn't understand why.

"Because that's what people are supposed to do. They talk about things, or see a psychiatrist, or something. I could've helped."

"How? Have you seen the things that I've seen?"

"Well, no, but-"

"That's your problem, Luke. You tried to fix me, and you tried to fix Liz whenever her new boyfriend turned out to be yet another loser. But the thing is, you weren't there when it mattered. You were there when Liz called you, you were there to bail her out. You weren't there when I saw that guy bleeding out on the floor without anyone lifting a finger to help him, or when one of Liz's boyfriend nearly OD'd, or when she came home drunk and broken hearted because she couldn't understand why they always left her. You can't fix me, Luke. I don't need your help, I don't need to pour my heart out to you. I’ll get through it by myself, or I won't get through it at all."

"Jess-"

"No, Luke. Shut up. You're a good man, but you can't help me with this. You don't get it. You've got this perfect small town life, with your diner and everything. You haven't seen what it's like out there. Don't try and fix me, because you don't have the faintest idea how. Now, I'm going out. Don't try and follow me."

After giving Luke the longest discussion he'd ever given him, Jess turned and walked out. Luke let him go.

~*~

Rory backed away from the water bottle as though it was poison. She supposed that, to her, in this state, it was.

Xander stared at the bottle as though he'd never seen anything like it in his life. He hadn't believed that Rory was turning into a vampire. He knew that it was ridiculously ironic that he, of all people, was playing the sceptic, but it went against everything he knew about vampires. It just wasn't possible.

Except that it was.

"Oh my God." Xander breathed.

"Oh God." Rory echoed, eyes wide, fists clenching and unclenching rhythmically at her side as she struggled to breathe. If this was what a panic attack felt like, Rory would never again sneer at all those swooning damsels in distress in movies. It felt like an elephant was sitting on her chest. "Oh God oh God oh God I'm turning into a vampire."

Xander gingerly put down the holy water bottle. "It'll be okay, Rory, we'll-"

"No! No, it won't be okay! How can anything be okay when there's stuff like this going on?"

"Rory, I know it's scary-"

"Scary?" Rory interrupted with a slightly hysterical giggle. "It's terrifying. I don't know how to deal with this. I can't deal with this."

"Yes, you can." Xander said gently. "We ca-"

"No! I wiped my memory to forget all of this before, and it wasn't even affecting me then. Now it - now I'm turning into a vampire! How can I deal with that!?"

"Rory, we can fix this." Xander said in as soothing a voice as he could manage. Which was considerably less soothing than he would've liked. "We can."

"This is your fault. This stuff follows you wherever you go. You and your damned demons and magic. This is your fault. My life was normal and happy before you came. This is all your fault!" Rory shouted.

Xander knew that Rory was scared out of her mind, but that didn't mean that her saying that didn't hurt. Especially seeing as how it was probably true. "Rory-"

"Shut up! Shut up and stay away from me!" Rory shrieked eyes a little wild.

"Stop it, Rory!" Xander snapped. He instantly felt guilty when he saw Rory flinch, but he fought down the urge to apologize and continued.

"Rory, there aren't that many people in my life that I care about. Most of them are so much stronger than me that even if I could help with their problems, they wouldn't need me. But you? You I can help. I know that, right now, you want nothing to do with me, that you'd rather never see me again. And I understand that. But you're going through something right now. If you want to leave that's fine. I'll call Willow and she can come and fix whatever is wrong with you and then you'll never have to see me again. You don't need my help, because you're a hell of a lot stronger than you think you are and I have no doubt that you can work through this without me. You don't need my help. But I want to give it. I want to put my arms around you while you shake with nerves and cry. I want to tell you that everything is going to be alright. Because I wasn't there for you when you came to Sunnydale. I couldn't help you then. But I'm here for you now. And I want to help. Please, Rory, let me help."

It was sickeningly romantic to say it, but, as Xander's monologue went on, Rory stopped feeling scared. Well, that wasn't actually true. Rory was still scared - but it didn't control her anymore. She no longer felt as though she was on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

Because of Xander. Because this was the sort of thing that Xander had dealt with on a daily basis for years. And, while he hadn't made it through without some scars, he'd survived, and he was intact, and he would fix this. He would keep her safe.

"Please." Rory said in a voice barely louder than a whisper. "Please put your arms around me while I shake with nerves and cry. Please tell me everything is going to be alright. Please."

She'd barely finished speaking when his arms were around her, and she felt safe in the warmth of his embrace. She cried into his shoulder as he stroked her hair.

He didn't tell her that everything was going to be alright, though.

Instead, he said, for the first time "I love you, Rory."


	14. Chapter Fourteen

Ethan was just telling Giles about how, during the time when he'd still cast chaos spells, he'd turned Riley into a woman just as he and his wife were... ahem, getting intimate and how they hadn't mentioned anything the following morning, after the spell had worn off, when Giles' phone rang.

"Excuse me a second." Giles said, standing up.

"Hey, Giles." Xander said cheerfully.

"Hello, Xander. What are you calling me for?"

"I wanted to remind you that Taylor wanted us to go to the town meeting tonight. Just wanted to make sure you hadn't forgotten."

"I hadn't. I'll be back by then."

"Yeah, just thought I'd make sure. Oh, and there's something else."

"Yes?"

"Rory's turning into a vampire."

Giles nearly dropped his phone. "What? Are you sure?"

"Uh huh. Holy water test was positive." Xander replied calmly.

Giles nearly asked him how he could be so calm, but he realised that, in a normal situation, Xander would be anything but calm. So, given that Xander was unlikely to be hiding his fear for Giles' sake, that meant that Rory was probably with him, most likely on the brink of a perfectly understandable panic attack. "There aren't any vampires in Stars Hollow." 

"I know. It's like she's getting the symptoms of vampire-ness one at a time. I thought I'd call you to see if you've ever heard anything like that before, what with you being the library-on-legs, and to show you that sharing information is good, before I ask Willow to come down and sort it out."

Giles opened his mouth to say that he'd never heard of anything about a vampire turning someone into a vampire, when he realised that just a few feet away was a warlock whose specialty was transmutation magic. One who'd been in Stars Hollow just a few days ago.

"I might have." Giles said in a carefully bland voice. "Don't contact Willow just yet. I might be able to fix this myself. I'll call you in a bit, see if I get anywhere."

"Thanks Giles. Just... don't be slow, okay?"

"Tell Rory not to worry." Giles hung up, fighting the urge to throw the phone clear across the street in a fit of anger. Instead, he went back inside and sat down in front of Ethan.

"Anyway, as I was saying-" Ethan said, oblivious to Giles thunderous expression.

"I can't believe I trusted you." Giles said in a low voice.

"What? All I did was put extra sugar in your tea while you went outside to take that call. It's no big deal."

"I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about Rory."

Ethan frowned, confused. "Who's Rory?"

"The girl you hexed."

"You know a girl called Rory? Were her parents especially stupid or just plain sexist?"

"It's short for Lorelai, but-"

"Oh. It would've made more sense if you'd just called her Lorelai. I expect you get a lot of confusion, otherwise."

"Stop trying to change the subject."

Ethan shrugged. "Well, there's not much to talk about, really. So what if I cursed some girl? It'll be a few days yet before the spell is done, and given that Stars Hollow is what it is it's unlikely that-"

"You cast a Goddamn chaos spell on an innocent girl, Ethan! How exactly is that reformed? I don't know how you managed to fool Riley, but you're clearly just as dangerous as you were when the Initiative first picked you up."

"It's your fault." Ethan said, idly tracing a pattern on the table.

Giles' mouth worked as he tried to speak. Finally, he managed to say "What? How can you possibly blame me for this?"

"You didn't believe me, Ru. You didn't believe that I'd change. So I thought I'd show just what a chaos mage can really do."

Giles was silent for a long moment. Then he said "You did that... to get my attention? You thought, oh hey, he thinks I'm still bad, so let's show him how bad I can be? How the hell does that make any sense?"

"It doesn't, when you put it like that. To be fair, it's mind-bogglingly boring working for the Initiative. I've been dying for something interesting for years. You were just the excuse."

"You're insane. You're a completely bonkers adrenaline junkie."

Ethan gave him a lopsided smirk. "Well, yes. Yes I am. Why do think I suggested that we summon Eyghon, back then? All those dangerous stunts we pulled were my idea, if you remember. Sure, it was you and your meticulous planning that actually made them happen, but they were my ideas. I can't stand boredom. Why else do you think I kept popping up wherever you were and wreaking havoc? Sure wasn't because of the company, most of the time you were a self-righteous arse. I did it because it was fun."

Giles managed, with great trouble, to restrain himself from leaping across the table and punching Ethan in the face. Instead, he said in as controlled a voice as he could manage "Break the spell, Ethan. After that, I don't want to ever see or hear from you again. If I do, you'll wish that you died alongside Randall."

Ethan rolled his eyes at the melodrama. "Fine. But you can pay for the tea." So saying, he stood up and walked out of the cafe.

Or at least, that's what Ethan tried to do. Giles grabbed his arm in a grip of iron and prevented his exit. "No, I don't think so. I'm not letting you out of my sight."

"You want to never see me again and never let me out of your sight? Really, Rupert, I thought you hated paradoxes."

"I won't let you out of my sight until after you break the spell." Giles clarified.

"I'll need my arm back for that."

Giles ignored him, and steered Ethan back to the counter to pay before frogmarching him back to his hotel room.

Once there, Ethan pulled out the bust of Janus he'd stowed under his bed, gave it a considering look for a moment, and then smashed it with a handy chair.

"It's done? You broke the spell?"

Ethan nodded. "Yes. Now feel free to return to your exceedingly dull life as caretaker to a bunch of teenagers."

~*~

"Any news?" Xander said in a carefully calm voice the moment Giles called.

"It's sorted out."

"Oh, thank God." Xander exclaimed prompting Rory to look at him in bemusement and hope. "What happened?"

"Ethan Rayne came wandering through town and thought he could cause a little trouble. I convinced him that that wouldn't be a good idea."

"Well, thanks, Giles. Thank you so much." Xander said effusively before hanging up. "It's done, Rory. Everything's been fixed."

Rory, however, wasn't quite as trusting towards Giles as Xander was. Maybe because, thanks to Giles' naturally secretive nature, she'd completely forgotten about the man who'd just told her that he loved her. "Are you sure?"

"Well, do you feel like ripping out my jugular?" Xander said, light tone completely incongruous to what he'd saying.

Rory blanched and swallowed convulsively. "No. No, but then I didn't feel like doing... like doing that even when I was changing. Assuming that I'm not now."

"How's your hand doing, then?"

Rory looked at it. It had been red and sore, as though she'd spilt boiling water on it. Now it wasn't. It was the ordinary smooth pale skin that her hand had always been.

Somewhat tentatively, Rory rolled up her sleeves. The sunburn that'd been there earlier was gone as though it had never been there.

Well, the proof seemed conclusive: Rory was no longer becoming a vampire.

Rory didn't say anything. She just stared at her arm, feeling unbelievably happy and incredibly relieved.

Xander gently ran a finger along Rory's thumb, down to her wrist before circling back up to her index finger. Rory shivered, goose bumps erupting at the feather light touch. "How are you feeling?"

Rory grinned at him. "Wonderful."

Xander smiled back. "Well, isn't that something."

"Yes. It is." Rory said, leaning forward to gently kiss the side of Xander's neck.

Rory didn't do that for an erotic purpose (well, not solely for an erotic purpose). She did it because she had recently been turning into a vampire, and no matter how conclusively the proof seemed to indicate that that was no longer the case, Rory still felt the need to prove that to herself. Hence placing herself in close proximity to Xander's unprotected throat.

Xander didn't know any of that, of course. He felt slightly nervous having someone so close to his throat, but then he felt like that towards anyone, whether they were a vampire or not. After having his best friend, Jesse, turned into a vampire, and not exactly having his low opinion of vampires changed by Angel or Spike, that kind of thing had always alarmed him.

However, Xander did manage to guess why Rory was doing what she was doing. As uncomfortable as it made him, he should could hardly push her away, not after telling her that he would be there for her, that he would help her.

Still, Xander was pretty relieved when Rory moved upwards to kiss him firmly on the lips.

At that point, Xander took the initiative and lifted Rory so that she sat on his lap. Rory let out a squeak and broke the kiss, looking at Xander with wide eyes.

Xander flashed her a self-confident smile and kissed the tip of her nose, slowing making his way down her cheek to her jawbone before coming back to capture her lower lip between his teeth.

Xander's hands moved, one going to the small of her back and the other gently cradling the back of her head, holding her close to him. Rory, in the meantime, hadn't the faintest of ideas what she should be doing with her hands - she started off with them on Xander's shoulders, before letting them hang loosely at her sides. Not comfortable with that, she eventually settled for fisting them in Xander's shirt.

Slowly, Xander began tracing a pattern on Rory's back, through her shirt. Although not nearly as sensuous as the earlier stroking of her hand, the extra tactile sensation was enough to make Rory emit a little groan and close her eyes, the better to revel in the feeling. As such, she missed the slightly amused look that Xander shot her.

Moving with glacial slowness, so as not to alarm her, Xander moved the hand he'd placed at the small of her back lower, until he reached the small strip of skin between her shirt and her trousers. When his fingers reached that zone, Rory stiffened. Xander thought about moving his hand, not wanting to pressure Rory into anything, but then she melted, kissing him with increasing ardour.

At that point, Xander completely forgot about the gentle movement of his hand that he'd been planning on. He was feeling more than a little blown away. 

Then Rory broke off the kiss for air, and Xander gawped at her with a glazed expression as she opened her eyes and blinked at him. She smiled at him archly, and then released one of her hands that she had been gripping Xander's shirt with, moving it in a slighter faster version of what Xander had done to her.

Slowly, she ran her fingers up under Xander's shirt, tracing his navel. Xander removed the hand that had been wound in Rory's hair - if he hadn't, he would've probably torn her hair out at the sudden rush of sensation. Instead, he tightly gripped the sofa.

Gradually, teasingly, Rory's hand crept upwards. Xander didn't even think about doing something similar for Rory - truth be told, he wasn't entirely capable of rational thought at that point.

Then the texture of Xander's skin began to change. Rather than the sensation of skin over muscle that Rory had felt so far, the skin began to feel like leather.

Xander frowned. "Why did. You. Stop?" he panted.

Rory withdrew her hand, and leant back as much she was able to with Xander's hands holding her in place. She didn't want him to remove them, not at that moment, but equally she didn't want to continue the make out session either. "Your scar."

Xander's frown deepened as he fought to think. Having Rory sitting on his lap didn't help much. "My scar?"

"Your burn." Rory clarified. "The one you told me about. Remember?"

Xander's face lit up with understanding. "Ah. Willow's scar. Of course." That explained why he had thought that Rory had stopped when she hadn't. The magical blast that Willow had hit him with on Kingman's Bluff had left him unable to feel anything on that particular spot.

Rory shifted, which did... distracting things to Xander, although clearly she just wanted him to let go, which he reluctantly did. She got up.

Xander sighed. "Well, there goes my chance at glad to be alive sex."


	15. Chapter Fifteen

Jess was sitting on the bridge smoking when Dawn came and sat next to him. He guessed that he shouldn't be particularly surprised by that - even though Dawn had agreed not to talk about the things he'd seen, he didn't think she was the kind of person to avoid him because of that. Truthfully, although Jess had left the diner to get away from Luke so that he didn't have to have a conversation with him, Jess could quite easily have left town for a bit, or at the very least gone to some less public place if he'd wanted to avoid conversation entirely. He supposed that it was different talking to Dawn, because she'd been through things too.

"Smoking again." Dawn commented redundantly, swinging her legs over the edge of the bridge.

Jess didn't reply, although he did take another drag on his cigarette.

"I thought you said that you were cutting back. That's your second today."

Jess didn't bother to mention that there about half a dozen cigarette butts gracing the bottom of the lake. He'd been sitting there for quite a while now. "I'm not planning on going cold turkey any time soon."

"You might want to think about it. Smoking isn't really good for us mere mortals."

Jess shrugged. "That's why I'm cutting back."

"Well, you might want to cut back a little more successfully."

"I think that's just about exhausted that topic." Jess said drily. "You can leave now."

"Oh, so G.O. Away is back then, I see."

"Yes. Now, why don't you go away?"

Dawn shrugged. "If I went away every time I encountered a broody person, I'd never have even met my sister's first boyfriend."

"I'm not brooding."

"That's what he always said."

"Did you ever consider that he just didn't want your company?"

"No. I am a lovely ray of sunshine. Who wouldn't want me around?"

"Well, me, for one. So go away and dazzle someone else with your sunny personality."

"What's the problem?"

Jess groaned. "Not that again."

"Well, something's clearly bothering you."

"Why does something have to be bothering me? I could've just come here for a peaceful smoke only to be disturbed by your nattering."

"You could have." Dawn conceded. "But you've obviously smoked more than one cigarette while you were sitting here, and I know the broody expression well. So, what's the problem?"

Jess glared at her balefully. "Give me back my cigarettes."

Dawn looked like she was going to play innocent, but changed her mind and pulled them out of a pocket before handing them to Jess. 

"Thanks, Carmen Sandiego." Jess said sarcastically.

"I prefer the Artful Dodger, personally. Anyone called Artful has to be pretty impressive."

Jess frowned, remembering the first day he'd met Rory. He'd stolen one of her books to leave some notes in the margins, and she'd called him Dodger. But Dawn couldn't know that.

"You alright there?" Dawn said, after the silence stretched on for too long.

Jess flicked his half-finished cigarette out into the lake and stood up abruptly. "I'm fine." he said curtly, walking away.

~*~

Lorelai was in the middle of preparing everything for the Dragonfly's test run weekend (and thinking that she couldn't possibly have everything ready by then) when Luke showed up and said "Lorelai, can I have a word with you for a minute?"

"Uh, Luke, could you come by at a slightly less awful time? Like next week? I'm kind of swamped here."

Luke almost left then, but he was here and he might as well carry on with what he had come to say. "It's about Jess."

Lorelai sighed. "What has he done now?"

"Nothing-"

"Well, you're right to be worried. I don't think that kid has gone a week without doing something villainous. He's probably going to c-"

"Lorelai, do you remember when you said that Jess was way more screwed up than I thought he was?" Luke said, cutting off Lorelai's tirade before she got into full swing.

Lorelai nodded. "Vaguely."

"Well, you were right. Good God, were you right." Luke pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Why? What happened?"

"You know that girl Dawn? The one that came with Xander?"

"No. I don't think I've met her."

"Well, anyway, Jess blurted out to her that he saw some guy stabbed in the neck with a broken bottle and bleed to death. I pressed him about it, and he said it was true. Then I suggested he talked to someone about it, and he flat out refused and stormed off."

"We knew he was pretty messed up to begin with, Luke. I've met Liz, and she seems like a nice enough woman, but I can't imagine what it would be like being raised by her. What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. That's why I'm here. I thought you might have some advice, or something. I mean, I know Liz and TJ are moving into town, but Jess wants to stay with me and I don't know what to do."

"Oh, Luke. I don't know what you can do. You can either leave him to get over it and hope that he sorts himself out, or force him to see a psychiatrist and hope that he doesn't resent you for the rest of his life. I don't know what's better."

Luke sighed. "I guess that's not really surprising. Rory's pretty much a perfect kid, I guess you've never had to deal with this stuff."

"Well, yeah, but Jess isn't your fault, Luke. He came to you, after all. You should probably give him a little space."

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess." Luke said thoughtfully. "Thanks, Lorelai."

"Any time."

~*~

"Can I see it?" Rory asked.

Xander frowned. "See what?"

"The scar. What did you think I was talking about?"

"Oh. It's just that, after that comment about glad to be alive sex and then you asking to see something, naturally I thought that you were talking about m-"

"Oh, God no." Rory exclaimed.

"Hey, there's no need to be so harsh."

"Xander, I was talking about the scar. Not about anything else. Get your mind out of the gutter."

"Want to check me for gang tattoos, do you?" Xander said, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"No euphemisms. I just want to see the scar."

"Ah, you say you only want to see my scar, but a corollary of seeing it is that I take my shirt off." Xander pointed out.

"Is getting naked all you can think about?" Rory said, sarcastic tone not quite taking attention away from her blush.

"Well, being alone in a room with a beautiful woman I've just had a really hot make out session with does tend to distract a man. It's even better than linoleum."

"I don't think that linoleum has ever been noted for its erotic power."

"You'd be surprised."

"Take off your shirt."

Xander blinked, a little taken aback by the directness, but then he winked and said "Yes, mistress." in as provocative a voice as he could manage.

When he did, Rory was utterly unaffected by the sight of having a shirtless Xander standing no more than a couple of feet in front of her. This was because seeing a large black burn scar has a tendency to drive away any feelings that seeing a shirtless man might normally evoke.

After a moment of staring, Rory said "Doesn't that hurt?"

Xander shook his head. "Nah. Giles said that Willow fried my nerves. I can't feel a thing there."

"Should-shouldn't you see a doctor or something?"

"No. It's magical, doctors can't fix it. Basically it's just there. It occasionally bleeds when poked by angry mothers armed with shovels. I don't usually even notice that it's there most of the time, except when it prevents me from having glad to be alive sex."

Rory stared at it some more, before noticing that, beside the big black scar that drew most of her attention, Xander had other, less noticeable scars. Some were long and jagged, like he'd been raked by a wild bear - or a demon. Others were puncture wounds, like someone had stabbed him with a knife - or sunk their claws into him. She saw the bruise on his arm from where she'd hit him with a shovel a few days ago.

Xander, noticing her gaze, said softly "They bother you, don't they? The scars."

After a few seconds, Rory shook her head. "No. They don't." But she wasn't entirely sure that she was telling the truth.

Xander looked sceptical, clearly not buying it either. "It's alright, you know. It's just what happens when you spend most of your life fighting demons. But I'm retired now, more or less. I'm not fighting on the front lines any more. You don't need to worry."

"How did you do it?" Rory asked suddenly. She hadn't been intending to say that, but it had just slipped out. "How did you manage to... to do it for all those years?"

Xander could've said something about how he'd only survived thanks to his friends. It would be true, if a little trite. But he knew that that wasn't what Rory was asking. Not really.

She'd seen a glimpse of what life in Sunnydale had been like, towards the end, and it had sent her running. She'd even let her memories be wiped so that she wouldn't have to face it. Rory wasn't asking how Xander had survived fighting vampires nearly every night for years. She was asking him why he hadn't run away when he'd had the chance.

Xander knew that Rory wanted him to say something reassuring, something that would make her feel less scared by what had so nearly happened to her. But Xander didn't really have a simple answer. He had come close to leaving so many times.

"I-I just did. I don't know how. I guess, to start off with, it was like an adventure. Like Scooby Doo, you know? Meddling kids solving mysteries. Even after Jesse died. But when Buffy drowned, I realised that it wasn't a game, not really. But I kept doing it because I could make a difference. Not because I could help people, although I did that, but because if I wasn't there then my friends would have to deal with it alone and they might die because I wasn't there. So... I guess I managed to stick with it for them."

Rory looked at him, eyes luminous with unshed tears. "I think you might be a wonderful person."

~*~

Later, Giles came back from New Haven, and Rory went home. Xander thought about asking Giles about what had happened, but he knew better than to try and talk to Giles after he'd met Ethan. Giles was liable to bite off people's heads at the slightest provocation in those circumstances.

Fortunately, that night was the time that Taylor has scheduled for a meeting of all the business people in town, to which he'd specifically requested Giles and Xander attend. Normally, Xander wouldn't wish an angry Giles on anyone (he remembered Giles attacking Angelus with a flaming baseball bat after he'd killed Jenny Calendar) but Taylor deserved it. Besides, he doubted that Giles would go full-on Ripper on him.

Despite knowing that the meeting was on, both Giles and Xander were late. They'd been looking for Dawn, on the off-chance that she might want to go to the meeting. When they'd finally found her (curled up in a chair in her house reading, insisting that she'd been there nearly the whole day) she refused. Apparently her willingness to attend town events had only extended to having her basket bought by Jess.

They weren't unduly surprised when Taylor said sarcastically "Well, look who's finally turned up. I'm so glad you could join us."

"Wow, Taylor, I didn't know you liked us so much." Xander said, taking a seat next to Lorelai. Giles sat on his other side.

"Perhaps now we can get on with business." Taylor said, ignoring him.

"I thought this was a meeting for all the business owners in town. How're they supposed to get on with business when they're all stuck in here?" Xander said.

"Yeah, Taylor, I'm losing custom by being here." Gypsy piped up. "There could be dozens of tourists looking to have their cars fixed."

"Very well. I brought you all here because I am aware that there is a proposal to open up some sort of half-way house for teenagers. I understand that this enterprise is to be run by a felon."

"Looking to move away from the market business, eh, Taylor?" Xander commented.

Taylor looked like he wanted to carry on without listening to a word Xander was saying, but he couldn't let that pass. "What are you talking about?"

"You stole my car, remember? Oh, you claimed there was some stupid law, but I bet you really just wanted my car. And last time I checked, car stealing was still a crime. Unless that's changed?"

"It hasn't." Gypsy replied.

"I think I'll defer to the town mechanic on this matter." Xander said grandly.

"I'm not a criminal!" Taylor said indignantly. "I was talking about you!"

"Me?" Xander said, the very picture of shocked innocence. "What have I ever done?"

"You broke your car out of the impound lot and used it as a getaway vehicle."

"No, I didn't." Xander said matter-of-factly.

Taylor waggled a finger at Xander. "Ah ha! He denies it!"

"Well, yes. That's because I didn't do it. Besides, you have no proof."

"The disappearance of your car was at the same time that you yourself left town, was it not?"

Giles stood up. "I've had enough of this." he growled. "I know you're the mayor here, Mister Doose, but that doesn't give you the right to denounce and slander an innocent citizen like this. Either produce some evidence, or drop this absurdity. Otherwise you'll be hearing from my lawyers."

"Well-" Taylor spluttered.

"Do you have any evidence?" Giles asked.

"Well, no-"

"In that case, I think we've got a good case for defamation of character. Unless, of course, you'd be willing to offer a formal apology to Xander and withdraw your baseless accusations?"

"But he cut a smiley face into my lawn!" Taylor said weakly.

"No, I didn't." Xander said grinning widely.

"Well, someone did." Taylor grumbled.

Lorelai held up her hand. "Yes?" Taylor snapped.

"I am Spartacus!"

~*~

Sometime later, after Taylor had failed to get control of the situation when half the town began declaring that they were Spartacus and dismissed everyone, Xander met Lorelai outside.

"Thanks." he said.

Lorelai shrugged. "It's no problem. Taylor's annoyed everyone in town at least once. We couldn't resist getting a little pay back."

"Thanks anyway. You could've just left me to flounder, you know."

"I don't think you would've done much floundering, really. Your father's terrifying. I think he'd have made Taylor run away before much longer."

Xander thought about saying that Giles wasn't actually his father, but decided to let it slide. Instead he said "What I'm trying to say is, I'm glad that you stood up for me. I thought you might be all cold and distant because... because of what happened."

"I haven't forgiven you for that. I understand why you did it, don't get me wrong, but would one phone call have been out of the question?"

Xander shrugged uncomfortably, wishing that he could explain to her why he couldn't have called but knowing that that would just make everything even more complicated. "I guess not."

"Anyway, Rory likes you, and you're a nice kid. I'm not going to hold the fact that you had a slight breakdown after your town collapsed against you. But if you put Rory through anything like that again, I will beat you to death with a shovel." Lorelai warned.

"If I do, I will stand there and let you do it." Xander said seriously. "I will not hurt your daughter. I promise you that."

Lorelai looked at him intently for a second before smiling slightly and saying "Good night, Valley Jesus."

"Good night, Coffee Guzzler."


	16. Chapter Sixteen

Lorelai had been worried that everything wouldn't be ready for the Dragonfly's test weekend she had scheduled, and that she would have to delay it for another week. However, with the arrival of the linens, it looked like everything would be ready.

Except for one thing. Lorelai had no doors. None of the rooms had doors, even though they should've arrived at least two weeks ago. Tom, her foreman, had contacted the door people and found that they should arrive in a few days, but today was Tuesday and the weekend started on, well, the weekend. She didn't have a few days to wait.

While most of the people who were coming for the test weekend were friends (and Taylor) who wouldn't mind if their doors were a little late, Lorelai didn't want to start her business that way. So she needed doors.

Unfortunately, Tom's carpenters were all busy making sure that the stairs wouldn't collapse or anything like that. They didn't have enough to time to whip up a couple of dozen doors. And while Luke would probably happily make them for her, he also had a diner to run. She didn't want to pull him away from that. She wasn't even entirely sure if they were dating or not.

Fortunately, Lorelai knew that there as another carpenter in town who had some free time on his hands. And given that Xander, when he'd first come to Stars Hollow, had said that he'd help work on the Dragonfly as payment for being allowed to stay with her only to leave town early(admittedly because Lorelai had told him too) she was pretty sure that she could convince him that he owed her. If push came to shove, she could even pay him the $100 that she owed him for pulling a Valley Jesus skit on her mother.

She just needed to find him.

~*~

After the town meeting, Xander hadn't spoken to Giles - he doubted that Giles had worked out all his snarkiness on Taylor, and Xander didn't relish having Ripper turn on him.

However, the following morning, Xander said "You know, once we actually start building the convalescence place, Taylor will probably try to make things as difficult for us as he possibly can."

Giles shrugged moodily over his tea. "We've already blown up one mayor. One more shouldn't be too hard."

"Yeah, but this one's human."

"So?"

"You don't mean that."

Giles sighed. "No, I guess not."

"Ethan really put you into a bad mood, huh?" Xander said sympathetically.

"Yes." Giles said. Although not for the reasons that Xander probably expected.

Giles had liked Ethan, even when he was a troublesome chaos mage. Sure, Giles had beaten him up a few times, and Ethan had hexed him more than once, but they'd also gone out for drinks a few times. Now it turned out that Ethan kept showing up just because it wasn't boring, not because he was Giles' friend.

Xander decided not to press him. "By the way, have you got planning permission and all that stuff for the convalescence house yet? I thought I might start putting together a construction team soon, now that everything's settled down somewhat."

"We just need to sort out the insurance. I had an appointment to deal with that, but the man I was going to see had a lawsuit brought against him. Once we get insurance, you're good to go."

"Insurance, hmm?" Xander said thoughtfully, the beginnings of a diabolical plan coming together in his head.

~*~

Luke woke up early that morning to open his diner, as he always did. However, his routine was interrupted by the sight of a cigarette packet taped to the wall opposite his door. He knew that it hadn't been there when he'd gone to bed, which meant that someone had unlocked the diner, come upstairs and left it there.

Naturally, Luke suspected Jess. Jess was the only person who knew where he kept his spare set of keys, and he also smoked. However, when Luke looked closer he saw a note attached to the carton. A note written by someone with girly handwriting.

Luke knew Rory's handwriting when he saw it. He knew that this wasn't it. The only other girl that Luke could imagine leaving Jess cigarettes was Dawn, given the fact that Jess had bought her basket and danced with her at Liz's wedding and all that.

That meant that Dawn had broken into his diner to leave a present and a message for Jess. Luke was hardly an expert on these things, particularly when it came to Jess, but he was pretty sure that that meant that there was something going on between those two.

Luke smiled to himself and shook his head, leaving the cigarettes where they were.

~*~

"Valley Jesus! Hey, Valley Jesus!"

Xander sighed, turned around and waited for Lorelai to catch up with him. "Morning, Lorelai."

"I need a favour."

"Oh, good morning, Xander, how are you doing today?"

"What?"

"That should've been your line."

"What was my line."

"No, not that, what I said before that."

"Morning, Lorelai? Why would I say that? While I do occasionally talk to myself, I don't normally wish myself a good day."

"Never mind. What was it you wanted?" Xander said exasperatedly.

"Doors."

"Is that code for something? I know I told you I was in a gang, but it wasn't really that kind of a gang..."

"No, I'm not asking for drugs. Do I look like I'd ask for drugs? Don't answer that. I need doors."

"Doors as in those things that are attached to the wall by hinges and open and shut?"

"Are there any other kind of doors?"

"I don't know. Probably. What do you need doors for?"

"Sledding down the hill."

Xander blinked. "Lorelai, you do know that it's nearly August, don't you?"

"I was being sarcastic. I need doors so I can use them as doors. Duh."

"Why? Were you targeted by the door bandit?"

"There's a door bandit? Maybe that's what happened to my doors."

"I think this conversation is getting away from me. Can you tell me, simply, what you need doors for? Please don't be sarcastic."

"The Dragonfly has no doors. I need doors."

"Couldn't you have said that to begin with?" Xander complained.

"I could have." Lorelai conceded. "But where's the fun in that?"

"Where's the fun in being involved in a massive misunderstanding?" Xander countered.

"Well, right here."

"You're impossible."

"I exist, so actually I'm only improbable."

"I... I don't know how to respond to that."

"By making me two dozen doors by Saturday?"

"Hold on. You want me to get you those doors?"

"Yes. That's why I'm talking to you."

"You know making doors takes time, and I'll have to make them fit in with the decor of your inn. It's not as easy as you might think."

"But you'll do it, right?"

"Most of my tools are buried in Sunnydale." Xander pointed out.

"You can get a new set."

"Fine, I'll do it."

"Thank you. I knew you were a miracle worker, Valley Jesus!"

"On one condition."

"Why, yes, you can take me home and ravish me. Just don't tell Rory. She wouldn't understand."

Xander, to his credit, didn't react. "How much coffee have you had today?"

"I haven't slept in about three days, so... a lot?"

"I want your father's phone number."

"Seriously?" Lorelai said, surprised. "Why?"

"It's a surprise. Don't worry, you'll like it."

"If it involves my dad, I doubt it."

"Trust me."

"Well, when confronted with such overwhelming persuasion, how can I refuse?" Lorelai pulled out the pen and notepad she had taken to carrying around in case any ideas for the inn struck her while she was walking around and jotted down a number and handed it to Xander. "Here you go."

"Thanks." Xander said, pocketing the note. "I'll get right on those doors, boss."

~*~

When Jess finally stirred, his response to seeing the cigarette packet and the note was superficially similar to Luke's. He too stared at it. However, Jess already knew that Dawn had no problem stealing things, and given that Luke kept his keys on the lintel above the diner door, it wasn't exactly hard to break in. If Luke opened up shop in New York, he'd be robbed blind within three days.

Jess took down the cigarettes and headed out, slipping out of the diner without saying anything to Luke. Luke noticed him go, but didn't say a word to stop him.

He found Dawn sitting on the same bench that they'd first met on, reading what appeared to be a biography of Pitt the Younger. "Hey Jess." Dawn said without looking up. "Did you get my note?"

"'Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know, because I've done it thousands of times.'" Jess read. "Can't go wrong with a little Twain."

"I can agree with you on that, at least."

"Although I've got to say that giving me cigarettes isn't exactly the best way to get me to give them up."

"You said you weren't planning on going cold turkey anytime soon. Besides, I've always had a thing for guys who smoke."

"Really?" Jess said thoughtfully. "I wouldn't have thought that Xander was the type."

Dawn slid a bookmark into her book and only then did she look up. "He isn't."

"So it's just me then, is it?" Jess said blandly, sitting down next to her.

Dawn swatted him. "No! It's some guy I kn- oh!"

"What?" Jess said curiously.

"I just realised why Xander called you Pitt the Younger."

"Really? Do tell."

"No. I've got to go do something." Dawn said, standing up hurriedly.

Jess watched her walk away, bemused, before shrugging and heading back to the diner.

~*~

Xander was just about looking for his car keys so he could drive into Hartford to get the things he needed for Lorelai's doors when Dawn rushed in and declared loudly "I don't have a crush on Jess!"

"Okay." Xander said noncommittally.

"I got the reference. William Pitt the Younger? Okay, so I might've had a crush on Spike, and Jess might be a younger human version, but that doesn't mean that I have a crush on him!"

"I'm sure it doesn't. I think he has a crush on you, though."

Dawn looked like she was going to continue yelling, but then she processed what Xander has actually said and it took the wind out of her sails. "What?"

"C'mon, Dawnie! He bought your basket, and danced with you at the wedding, and he watched Pride and Prejudice with you. Sounds like a crush to me."

"How did you know we did that?" Dawn said weakly.

Xander shrugged. "I have ears, don't I?"

"Bu-but he's still in love with Rory!"

"Yeah, but besides pushing me in the lake what evidence of that do we have? You've got to face the facts, Dawn."

Dawn thought about mentioning all the times Jess had said that he still had a thing for Rory, or how he'd been in such a foul mood when Rory had told him that they were just friends. However, she fully realised that saying all of that to Rory's current boyfriend would be a sure fire way of getting Jess beaten to a bloody pulp. Dawn didn't want that.

Dawn was sure that Xander was wrong, that Jess was still hung up on Rory. That his actions towards her had only been those of a friend.

But, now that Xander had mentioned it, Dawn wasn't sure any longer. Not completely.

~*~

"So, you and Dawn, huh?" Luke said when Jess came back.

"Dawn and I what?"

"Andrew says she's been buying all kinds of books from him. I know you like well-read people. And she doesn't seem to have a problem breaking into to other people's houses. She seems like just your type."

"What are you talking about?" Jess said, nonplussed.

"Oh, you haven't figured it out yet? She likes you."

"What?"

"C'mon, have you really not seen the signs? People don't break into each other's houses to leave cigarettes unless there's some sort of attraction going on."

"She likes Xander."

"Really? Could've fooled me."

"She told me so."

Luke shrugged. "I must be wrong." he said, with a little smile indicating that he didn't really think that he was.

Jess did, though. Dawn had told him multiple times that she liked Xander.

On the other hand, he'd also told her he liked Rory. It wasn't exactly likely that Dawn would admit to liking him after he'd said that.

Suddenly, Jess wasn't quite so sure. He turned around and left the diner again.

~*~

They met on the bridge.

"Do you have a crush on me?" Dawn demanded.

"I was just about to say the same thing."

"Xander told me you did."

"Luke told me you did."

Dawn looked at him, then smiled slightly. "'I may sit in a corner and cry heigh-ho for a husband.'"

Jess smiled back "Nice to see you, Beatrice."

"Hey! You got the Shakespeare joke!"

"I did."

"No one ever gets those."

"Well, I'm special."

"So, Benedick, do you have a crush on me?"

"Do you?"

"I asked you first."

Jess rolled his eyes. "Okay, I'm going to do something. Don't throw me in the lake or anything."

Then he took Dawn's head in his hands and gently kissed her.

Some moments later, he broke off. "Well, I think that answers that question."

Dawn took a deep, shuddering breath. The first she'd taken since she'd realised what Jess was going to do. "You need to give up smoking. That was like kissing an ashtray."

Jess smirked. "Planning on doing it again, are you?"

Dawn smiled back, a little shyly. "Yeah, Astrophil, I think I am."


	17. Chapter Seventeen

Thanks to some mutual, unspoken signal, Dawn and Jess went their separate ways soon after that.

Dawn was on her way back home when she wondered what she was doing.

She liked Jess. She'd liked him even before the surprising revelation that she liked him. But he was hardly the most stable person in the world. He'd skipped town on Rory once, she knew.

Dawn had... problems with people leaving her. In Sunnydale, people left her with alarming frequency - which was probably why she had attached herself to Tara so firmly. Even when Tara and Willow had briefly broken up, Tara had still made time for her. That is, until Warren had killed her.

She suspected that the fear that people would leave her was the reason why, at eighteen, the closest thing Dawn had ever had to a relationship had been magically forced on her. She'd had a crush on Xander, which had started when he'd been dating Anya and therefore unavailable, so he couldn't leave her. The situation had been the same with Spike. Even during the brief period when Xander had been single, she hadn't made anything even resembling a move on him. Not just because she didn't want to be rebuffed (although there was certainly an element of that) but because, in Dawn's experience, relationships always, always ended. Even with stable nice guys, like Xander.

Jess, however, was not a stable nice guy. While he was nice, at least to her, the same couldn't be said for the way he treated everyone else. He was a lot like Spike, in that respect. And he certainly wasn't stable.

Dawn didn't want to start a relationship that was doomed to failure. She'd seen the aftermath of that, after Buffy and Angel had finally broken up. She'd seen it at least half a dozen times. In her world, things didn't last.

It has been said that it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. Dawn didn't agree. She'd seen her friends picking up the pieces after their great love had fallen apart. She wasn't in love with Jess, for all that she'd enjoyed that completely unexpected kiss, but she didn't think that love could be worth the heartbreak that, in her experience, it always ended with.

Going by past experiences, it seemed incredibly unlikely that she and Jess would work out. It was better to keep Jess at arm’s length, rather than bring him close and then watch him run for the hills.

~*~

Jess was surprised. He really, really hadn't expected to discover that he actually liked Dawn.

Jess, contrary to popular opinion, hadn't come back to Stars Hollow because of Rory. Had Rory been available, that would've been a bonus. No, Jess was in Stars Hollow because it was the only place in his life that he'd ever felt truly happy. New York, by and large, had been... well, it had been remarkably akin to hell.

He hadn't expected to find, within a week of coming back, to find someone he actually liked.

But then, Jess hadn't expected to like Rory, either. But he had, he had since he first saw her massive collection of books and he'd seen her face light up when she talked about them. Dawn was quite similar, in that respect.

Of course, with Rory, things had been complicated by the fact that she had been with Dean for most of the time that Jess had been in town. Even when they'd been a couple, they'd never quite spoken the same language. They'd had mastered the kissing aspect of their adolescent relationship, but when it came to talking about something more serious than literature, it had somehow never quite happened. They hadn't really understood each other.

He suspected that Dawn might. While, superficially, she was the same as Rory, she wasn't a girl who'd always gotten everything. She wasn't the darling princess of the town. She was just as flawed as he was. He didn't know whether mutual brokenness was a sound foundation for a relationship, but given that, other than Rory, pretty much every relationship he'd ever had pretty much consisted of one night stands, Jess thought it was a better foundation than any he'd had before.

Jess didn't know if this fledgling relationship, brought about by Xander and Luke's Shakespearean machinations would survive. But he knew that he wasn't going to be the one that crushed it. Not if he could help it. Not this time.

~*~

Xander was driving to Hartford when he realised what he might have inadvertently brought about.

While Xander preferred the idea of Jess and Dawn to Dawn persisting with her crush on him and Jess with his crush on Rory (his relationship was already strange enough not to need that added strain), that didn't mean that Xander liked the idea.

However, Xander knew full well that trying to warn Dawn to stay away from Jess, if there actually was any attraction between them at all, would be completely futile. She'd probably be even more likely to pursue it. Xander doubted that reverse psychology would work, either - even if, somehow, Xander could bring himself to endorse that relationship, Dawn would never believe Xander if he told her to go for it.

On the other hand, he did know someone who had gone through a relationship strikingly similar to how Xander suspected Jess and Dawn would end up.

So, while he was driving, Xander dug out his phone, hit a number on speed dial and then held it to his war with his shoulder. Let no one say that Xander wasn't a conscientious driver.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Buffy? How're things going?"

"Oh, hi, Xan. Listen, would you mind calling me back later? I'm kind of in the middle of something."

"Apocalypse? It's a little early for one of those, isn't it?"

"Nah, nothing like that. But if you-"

"Who did Faith beat up this time?"

Buffy chuckled. "One of the new Slayers. She's some entitled posh girl, she said something and Faith broke her arm for it. I feel like a schoolteacher dealing with unruly teenagers."

"You should set Robin on them."

"Normally I would, but Robin's got a soft spot for Faith."

"Anyway, I don't want to drag you away, Headmistress, but I wanted to talk to you about Dawn."

"Oh, God. I thought there weren't any demons in your neck of the woods. Who kidnapped her this time?"

"No, no, it's nothing like that. It's, um, boy trouble, I guess."

"What? You've been there a week. What's she done now?"

"Well, it's kind of complicated. Do you have time?"

Buffy sighed. "No, I guess not. Give me the skinny later, alright? I'll be waiting with bated breath."

"Sure thing, boss. Go and give people detention."

"I would stick my tongue out at you, but that doesn't really work over the phone."

Xander laughed. "Talk to you later."

"Bye, Xan." Buffy hung up.

~*~

Given that there were already plenty of builders bustling around outside the Dragonfly, making plenty of noise, Xander decided it would be best if he set up there rather than in the residential area he lived in.

Some minutes later, Lorelai came out. "Which wood are you using?"

Xander stopped sawing and said "Number One."

"What? Is that some builder's jargon I don't know?"

Xander rummaged around for the picture that he'd bought in Hartford for just this eventuality. He held it up.

"And now, Number One. The larch. The larch. The larch."

Lorelai was torn between laughing and keeping at least a semi-professional persona. She compromised by laughing. She could be professional later. "Nice set up there, Monty. The picture really sold it."

Xander gave an elaborate bow. "Thank you."

"But seriously, what wood have you got?"

"Lorelai! That's rather a personal question." Xander said, waggling his eyebrows.

Lorelai smirked. "Nice to see you switch to something completely different. But as much as I'd like to match wits with you, I actually need to know."

"Look, by the time I'm done, you'll have doors that'll match your inn. If you want more technical details, I'll give them to you, but you'll probably forget them pretty much instantly."

"Fair enough." Lorelai said. She remembered when Sookie had waxed lyrical about her new oven and Lorelai had completely forgotten what she said even while she was still saying it. "Just have them done by Saturday."

"Aye aye, Cap'n." Xander said, saluting smartly.

Just as Lorelai was turning to leave, Xander asked "Can I ask you something?"

"In addition to the question you just asked? Sure."

"What was Jess like as a boyfriend?"

Lorelai took a step back, thrown by the question. "I don't know, I never dated him."

"Ha. It's just that I think he might be interested in Dawn, and I've known guys like him in the past. I just wanted to know what he was like."

"If Dawn likes him, you won't be able to convince her not to date him." Lorelai warned. "I've tried that."

"Maybe, but I should at least try."

Lorelai thought for a moment. "Well, I never liked Jess. I don't think anyone but Rory liked Jess, except possibly Luke. He was kind of a jerk to everyone else. But to Rory... he was different. He was nice. Sometimes. Other times, it was like some wall came down between them, and everything they said to each other was misunderstood or just bounced away and was ignored. Then there was the fact that he's colossally screwed up and pulls a lot of stupid stunts... yeah, he's not exactly ideal boyfriend material."

Xander looked thoughtful. "Thanks, Lor."

Lorelai smiled. "You're welcome. I hope it helps." 

~*~

Meanwhile, Dawn went to Luke's. As she expected, Jess was there.

"Hey. Coffee?" Jess offered.

"This isn't going to work." Dawn blurted out.

"What won't? The coffee? No, you generally have to drink it before the caffeine kicks in."

"Not that. Us."

Jess blinked. "Wow. That was fast."

"Sorry."

"Can I ask why?"

Dawn looked at him, wondering why he was taking this so calmly. "You can, but the answer won't make much sense to you unless you live in my head."

"Alright then, let me take a guess. Someone hurt you before. Someone left you, and you were just getting over it when suddenly out the blue, there's me. And I am your stereotypical bad boy, so it's pretty much in my job description that any relationship with me will end badly. So, rather than risk it, you're breaking it off now to save yourself pain later. How close am I?"

"Um, startlingly close, actually." Dawn said, twirling her hair around her finger. "Since when did you start living in my head?"

"You might be Enigma Girl, but that story is hardly unusual. I've seen it before. Admittedly, it's generally my mom, and she generally says it immediately after the latest jerk leaves her and she forgets it all when the next one shows up." Jess replied, watching Dawn closely.

Dawn wasn't quite sure what to say. Eventually, she managed "But h-how did you know that I was like that?"

Jess smirked. "Because you like Austen."

"What?"

"You want some knight in shining armour, some perfect Mr Darcy to show up and sweep you off your feet so that you can live happily ever after. But it doesn't work like that. Attraction doesn't work like that, or love, or lust, or whatever you want to call it. It is messy and complicated. But if you find the right person, it will be as constant as the earth beneath your feet rather than the changing foliage above your head. It will not die when winter comes." Jess said, and took a deep breath. "I am not saying that I'm the right person. It came as some surprise to me that I even thought if you like that. But if there is a chance... why run before you know?"

Again, Dawn was rendered temporarily speechless. "Y-you stole most of that from Wuthering Heights."

Jess shrugged, smirking. "Doesn't make it untrue. Now you see why I'm a Brontë fan."

"Yeah." Dawn took a shaky breath. "You really feel like that? You believe what you said?"

"Yes. Dawn, I can't guarantee that this will work. But I'll give it a go. We might be terrible, and never work out. Or we might fit. So, will you take the chance?"

"Yes." Dawn said instantly. Then she blinked, surprised at her response. But she wasn't going to change her mind now. Jess might be considerably closer to Heathcliff than Darcy, but if she could have a tenth of the passion that was evident between Catherine and Heathcliff, it might be worth it. On the other hand, she and Jess might end up as tortured as Catherine and Heathcliff too, but... why not take the risk?

She might change her mind later. She might run for the hills. So might Jess. But, for now, they were both there and willing to give it a go. That was enough.


	18. Chapter Eighteen

"Hi, Xander."

Xander looked up, then smiled. "Hey, Rory. How's things?"

"Things are good. I see Mom's roped you in to help her out. I hope she's actually paying you."

"Oh, she said something about letting me take her home and ravish her." Xander smirked.

Rory blushed a little, but said "You can't actually consensually ravage someone. It would just be sex."

"Okay, can we stop talking about your mother and her sex life now? Please?"

"God, yes."

"So, is there something I can do for you, or did you just want to see me work?"

"I thought I'd enjoy the show." Rory grinned. "It's not often that you get to see Jesus as work."

"Just don't expect any miracles, okay? This will be a rush job - it'll probably only pass muster until the real doors arrive."

"Well, having doors is better than not having them, even if they are shoddy workmanship."

"Hey!" Xander said indignantly. "It might be a rush job, but my work is never shoddy!"

"In case you didn't know, carpentry is hardly my strong point, Xan. I can't tell good doors from bad doors."

"Well, for future reference, this is a decent door. It's nothing special."

"Noted."

"So." Xander said, changing the subject. "Are you going to your grandparents’ house on Friday?"

"I missed the last dinner because of my finals, so I kind of have to go to this one." Rory replied, a little nonplussed by the new topic. "Why?"

"It's a surprise."

"What is it?"

"A surprising surprise." Xander answered. "And suddenly I understand why Giles got so annoyed when I kept pestering him to tell me what his surprise was."

"Is it at least a nice surprise?"

"Well, I'm going to like it. You and Lorelai probably will, too."

"Do I need to do anything, or just be an unwitting accomplice?"

"You just have to be there."

"Sure thing." Rory said. "Can you at least give me a hint?"

"Nope!" Xander said cheerfully, grinning like a pumpkin. "That'll spoil the surprisingly surprising surprise."

"You know I'm going to be dying from anticipation all week, right?"

"So, will there be a chance of glad not to have died from anticipation sex?"

"Xander! Is that all you think about?"

"No, but I'm currently holding a big tool and feeling all manly right now."

Rory giggled. "Y-you're holding a big tool?"

~*~

"So, you find out whether she likes you or not?" Luke said to Jess.

"Yup."

"And?"

"Oh, I threw her to the ground and we consummated our undying love right then and there. We're getting married tomorrow."

Luke blinked. "I can't tell if that means that you like her or if you're just being ridiculously sarcastic."

"You know me, Luke. It could quite easily be both."

"So, is it both?"

"I've got to plead the fifth on that one."

"Ha! So you do like her!"

"Hey, Luke, can we not do this? We don't live in a chick flick, you know."

"I reserve the right to tease you mercilessly about this at a later date."

"You, tease?" Jess scoffed. "Like you even know how."

"I'll have you know that I've picked up a lot from Lorelai over the years."

Jess buried his face in his hands. "Oh, God. Don't even go there. She'll probably give me shtick about liking someone who is basically a slightly broken version of Rory."

Luke frowned. "Slightly broken?"

"Well, yeah. Her town fell into a giant crater, in case you forgot that. Which you probably haven't, seeing as how she yelled at you about it. You can't just get through something like that."

"Ah. So that explains her breaking in to give you some cigarettes. You can be the town's smoking couple. And I do mean that with all the clever implications attached."

"She doesn't smoke. And if smoking couple is the best you can come up with, perhaps you should go to Lorelai for extra teasing classes. Although, seeing as how you're dating now, you probably wouldn't get that much studying done anyway..."

"Alright!" Luke held up his hands in surrender. "You win!"

"How kind of you to say so." Jess said sarcastically.

"Seriously though, am I going to get a call from the police in the future saying that you two have knocked over a liquor store together?"

"Why Luke, I'm offended that you'd think I would do something like that!"

"Fine." Luke grumbled. "Just, when you and Bonnie do go and hold up a bank together, leave me out of it, will you?"

"Sure thing, Uncle."

"So, when are you going to bring her over? You just know that Liz will be dying to meet her."

"Luke!"

~*~

Later, when the light went and Xander could no longer make doors properly, he went home and called Buffy, hoping that she would've sorted out the mess with Faith and the other Slayer by then.

"Hi, Xander." Buffy said the moment Xander's call went through. Xander wondered idly if she'd been waiting by the phone. "What's going on?"

"Um, well." Xander composed his thoughts, trying to get them in order. He really needed to remember her to work out what he was going to say before calling people. "There's a guy in town - Rory's ex, actually - and I think Dawn likes him, and he likes her. I'm not actually sure, though, because I kind of blurted out the whole thing to her earlier and she seemed gobsmacked by the whole thing."

"So you called me because Dawn may or may not like someone? God, Xander, as much as I like a good gossip I've been worried all day about this."

"Actually, that's not everything. The guy, Jess, is basically the closest thing to Spike you can be while still be human."

"Are we talking about early days Spike, chipped Spike, soulless but in love with me Spike or ensouled Spike?"

"Early days Spike. He smokes, didn't graduate high school, ran away from home while he was still dating Rory, leaving her pretty heartbroken, gets into fights, and likes literature."

"Wow. Sounds just like Dawn's type."

"Yeah. That's kind of the problem. I know how that... thing you had with Spike ended. I don't want Dawn to end up like that."

"Xan, you know that it wasn't entirely Spike's fault-"

"Yeah? You asked him to rape you, did you?" Xander said harshly.

"Well, no, bu-"

"Look, Buffy, I don't think he's a good guy. He's a bad guy. And Dawn's just lost her home, and she's already pretty fragile after everything that's happened to her. This is the last thing she needs."

"Xan, I'll talk to her. But I can't promise anything. You know Dawn - she's hardly the type to stay away from someone just because I say so. Especially given my track record on that front. Anyway, she's in a normal town doing normal things now. Maybe she needs a relationship with a bad boy. Every girl needs at least one of those."

"Willow didn't."

"Xan, Willow's gay. And she dated a werewolf. And you could say that, with Tara, Will was the bad boy there."

Xander sighed. "I guess. I just don't want to see her hurt, you know?"

"Maybe you're just sad that you're not the belle of the ball anymore." Buffy joked.

"Well, I guess Jess is better than Moloch. At least slightly."

"That's the spirit! But, Xan, you know that no matter what we do she'll probably go ahead and see Jess no matter what we say. So, if she does, at least try and be nice to him, okay?"

"Seriously? I couldn't be nice to Angel even before he flipped out and went crazy. How am I meant to be nice to Jess?"

"Maybe just avoid him then."

"Oh, that I can do. That'll be no problem."

~*~

Buffy did call Dawn, and as she had predicted Dawn didn't pay the slightest attention to what she said. She said something about not being Anne Elliot and having to do things for herself without listening to other people trying to persuade her to do what they wanted.

Xander solved that entire situation by avoiding it completely. He spent most of his waking hours making doors, and so was naturally away from anywhere that Jess and Dawn might find themselves. However, with Miss Patty, Babette and the other town gossips seemingly on every street corner, Xander still felt like Sherlock Holmes spying on people with his Baker Street Irregulars. So it was that he found that, even though Dawn and Jess had kissed all of once, besides that their relationship didn't seem to have changed.

Xander finished the doors on Friday afternoon, and handed them over to Dean to get them attached. Then he went to go and find Giles.

Giles was, as he had been ever since his encounter with Ethan, reading. He was trying to find out what Ethan had meant by his cryptic reference to Stars Hollow being something unusual. He had yet to find anything of interest. 

"Hey, Giles." Xander said cheerfully, sitting down opposite Giles. Giles jumped - he'd been so absorbed in what he was reading that he hadn't noticed Xander's arrival.

"Oh. Hello, Xander." Giles said tiredly, before turning back to his book.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"I believe that you have the capability, yes."

Xander rolled his eyes. "I was wondering whether I could borrow a suit. What with you being the King of Tweed and all that."

Giles looked up, surprised. "Why? I can't even remember the last time you wore a suit."

"My wedding, probably. But I'm meeting with a guy to arrange our insurance later, and I need to make a good impression."

"You can't borrow one of my suits, no. They're tailored to my measurements, and they wouldn't work for you. But a shop bought one should do the job in these circumstances."

"Bah. I was really hoping for a tailored tweed suit. It would make everything just so much funnier."

"Funnier? I wouldn't think that insurance should be funny."

"Oh, that part isn't. But after that it'll be a barrel of laughs."

"Well, if you’re set on a specially tailored one, we can and see. It'll be a rush job, but I'll be better than shop bought."

"This is going to be a big outing, isn't it?" Xander said, resignedly.

Giles smiled. "Yes, I'm afraid it will be."

~*~

Later that night, Rory and Lorelai arrived at Lorelai's parents’ house for their traditional Friday night dinner. They were greeted at the door by the latest of Emily's long string of maids, and then ushered through to the parlour.

"Where's Dad?" Lorelai asked.

"Oh, he's got some kind of meeting upstairs. Would you like a drink?"

"Martini."

"Soda, please."

"So, Lorelai, you said on the phone that there was something important that you wanted to tell us. What was it?" Emily asked.

"Oh, I'd rather wait until Dad comes down."

"You know how his meetings get. It starts out as business, then they start smoking cigars and talking about the clients they've swindled."

"Wow, my grandpa's Al Capone." Rory murmured.

"Nothing so dramatic, I'm sure." Emily replied. "Lorelai, you'd best tell me now and I'll tell your father, if it's that important."

"Well, it's about the inn-"

"Hold on, I think that's him now." Rory interrupted.

Indeed it was. Richard Gilmore came down the stairs. 

Following behind him was Xander, dressed in tweed suit.

Rather than going to the door, Xander took a turn into the parlour, swept Rory into a movie-style kiss (where he put one hand behind her head, one at the small of her back and then tilted her so that only her heels were on the floor and he was supporting her entire weight) and then pressed a note into Emily's unresisting hand before leaving without a word.

Rory blushed, pressing her fingers to her lips. Lorelai, with difficulty, restrained herself from bursting out laughing at Emily and Richard's frozen expressions.

Eventually, she managed to get herself sufficiently under control to ask "What does the note say?"

Emily, seemingly running in autopilot, unfolded the note. "Ice Bank Mice Elf." she read.

That was too much for Lorelai, who burst out laughing so hard that tears sprang to her eyes. Rory followed soon after.

Richard looked at Emily in astonishment, saying "You do?", which of course only caused the younger Gilmores to laugh all the harder.

"I don't understand." Emily frowned. "What does Ice Bank Mice Elf mean?"

"Think... about what... the words... sound like spoken aloud." Lorelai managed to say. She was having difficulty speaking because she was laughing so hard that she could barely breathe.

Emily's lips worked silently. Then her eyes went wide and she dropped the note. "Oh my God!"


	19. Chapter Nineteen

Later, Xander heard a knock on his door and got up, smiling. He had a pretty good idea who it was.

When Xander opened the door, his suspicions were proved to be completely correct. It was Rory.

However, Xander hadn't expected her to be wearing an expression that could only be described as angry.

"You can't just do that to someone!" Rory yelled.

Xander frowned, baffled. "Are we talking about something other than what happened at your grandparents’ house tonight? Because I know that you found that hilarious. I could hear you laughing."

"That's not the point. Those are my grandparents we're talking about! And you just humiliated Grandma and made me and Lorelai sit through a ridiculously awkward conversation. You can't just do that!"

"Why not?" Xander challenged. "What's the difference between what I did and snidely insulting me, my road trip and then casually insinuating that I might be a drug addict?"

"So it was just revenge?"

"Nothing as extreme as that. Just call it taking her down a few pegs. Occasionally rich and entitled people need that. Cordy certainly did."

"You know that you're talking about my grandparents here?"

"Why, yes, I am aware of that."

"So you think that I'm just some entitled rich girl?" Rory asked. "Do you think I need to be humiliated too?"

"What? No! Of course not! Rory, I don't understand, where is this coming from?"

"Look, sometimes my grandparents might be really irritating, but they're still my grandparents and I love them. How would you feel if someone started making jokes about your family?"

"My family? Most of my family consists of drunks and unemployed layabouts. Feel free to start taking shots at them anytime."

"Yeah? Well - don't do that to mine!" Rory concluded lamely.

"Alright, I'll bear that in mind."

Rory shook her head. "God, Xander! I might've expected something like that from Jess, but you?"

Xander, who had up to that point been largely confused by the sudden argument, froze. Not in the sense where he stopped moving, but all expression dropped from his face and he said in an eerily calm, icy voice "Don't talk to me about Jess."

"Why not?" Rory shot back. "That's exactly the kind of thing Jess would've done."

"I am not like Jess, Rory."

"Oh no? Because a prank like that which ends up humiliating people is exactly his style."

"I am not like Jess, Rory."

"Stop saying that! Anyway, I'm not seeing much evidence of that right now, Xander. At the moment, you seem pretty much the same."

"For God's sake, Rory, I am not like Jess!" Xander shouted. "Stop saying that. It isn't true."

Rory flinched at the sudden outburst. "I'm not sure any more." Rory said softly, then turned to leave. She couldn't take this.

"Rory!" Xander called after her. "I am not a rebellious teenager who smokes and causes trouble and gets into fights. I am not the kind of guy who is only nice when the mood strikes him, I am not a psychopath or a murderer and I'm sure as Hell not a rapist!"

"What?" Rory turned around. "Are we still talking about Jess?"

Xander shook his head. "I've seen how guys like Jess end up, Rory. It-I've know someone who started off just like Jess. She ended up killing people. Then there was someone else who could've been Jess' older soulless brother, who killed and tortured and raped God knows how many people. I'm not like that, Rory. I will never be that kind of person."

"Xander-"

"You know what, Rory? If you think I'm like that, then just leave. Go back to your sheltered life with your rich family. Because, yes, you are an entitled rich girl who has had everything handed to her. I had to work for everything I have, and I didn't do that so that people like you could draw similarities between me and lowlifes like Jess."

"That's unfair, Xa-"

"No. It isn't. Good night." Xander said coldly, shutting his door.

Rory stared at it for several seconds, trying to process what had just happened, before she went home.

~*~

Lorelai, unlike Rory, hadn't been outraged by what Xander had done. Many times she'd wanted to do something that would take the wind out of Emily's sails a little. Admittedly, she would've preferred if Xander had done it at the end of the meal when they were about to leave so that they wouldn't have had to endure the uncomfortable conversation that followed, but the she didn't mind that he'd done it.

So she waited at home while Rory went to yell at him for making her grandparents seem like fools. When Rory got back, Lorelai asked "How did it go?"

"Well, I told him not to do it again, and he said he wouldn't."

"That's good." Lorelai said. "But there's something else, isn't there?"

"What? No. That's it."

"Really? So what's with the horse?"

"What?"

"The long face, sweetie."

"Well... I kind of said that he was like Jess. He took offence at that."

"Understandable."

"It kind of turned into a fight about then."

"Bad?"

"Well, I called him Jess, and he called me an entitled rich girl who's never had to work for anything in her life."

"So, do you want the shovel or should I do it?"

"No, Mom. I- he kind of had a point."

"No, he doesn't. Don't think that. I know how hard you worked to get into university, and you got in everywhere you applied. I don't know anyone who works harder than you do."

"Yeah, but it's not like we're paying for Yale. We didn't even pay for Chilton. It's not like I'm such an amazing student that I got a scholarship or anything."

"Stay here." Lorelai said, standing up.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to go and beat that abusive son of-"

"Mom! You don't need to do that. It was just a fight. He didn't hit me or anything like that."

"Honey, if he's making you think that about yourself, its still abuse."

"Look, Mom, you don't need to do that. Seriously, you-"

"Yes, I do. If he hurt you, he deserves it."

"Mom-"

"Rory! Stay here while I go and beat Xander to death, okay?"

"Fine!" Rory said exasperated, knowing that she didn't stand a chance of changing Lorelai's mind.

~*~

Xander originally had no intention of opening his door, but when the knocking went on and on without a pause he finally sighed, got up and wrenched it open. "Oh. It's you. Come to beat me to death with a shovel, huh?"

"How dare you say that to my daughter!"

"You know, you won't be able to get much power behind your blows while I'm standing in the doorway. Let's go outside, it'll give you more room to swing." Xander said, ushering Lorelai backwards and then shutting his door behind him. "That's better. Come on now, take your best shot."

"Why are you doing this?" Lorelai asked, thrown by his acquiescence.

"Because apparently I'm a good-for-nothing thug destined to be a petty thief and a murderer and I deserve to be put down."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I don't think I stuttered. But what are you waiting for? You've got the shovel. Come on now."

"What do you mean, about being a murdering thug?"

"Ah, so Rory didn't mention that part, then. Or maybe being likened to Jess means something different to you than it does to me."

"Well, it's a lot less offensive than calling my daughter an entitled rich girl."

"Not if you've lived my life, it isn't."

"No? Then why don't you tell me about your life, Xander? Because as far as I'm concerned you're just some great big mystery. I know you've got some massive burn on your chest and that you were involved in something shady back in Sunnydale. Other than that, I don't know a thing. So tell me, what exactly is your life like?"

"Do you want to know? Do you really want to know?" Xander said calmly.

"Yes! That's why I'm asking!"

"Okay then. My best friend was killed when I was fifteen. After that, a few friends and I became... I don't know, I guess vigilantes is the best word. In retaliation, they drowned another one of my friends. She died, technically, and only the fact that I know CPR saved her life. Later, that same friend turned out to be dating a raving psychopath who killed Giles' girlfriend. A year after that, a new girl arrived in town and accidentally killed someone. She went off the deep end and killed another guy too. She ended up nearly killing me. Incidentally, that was the girl that I lost my virginity to. Two years after that, the same friend's mother died from a brain tumour and given that her father seemed to have disappeared off the face of the planet she was left to care for herself and D- her sister, which for various reasons wasn't easy. She was twenty-one at the time. Another one of my friends became an addict, which broke her up with her girlfriend. When she cleaned up her act a little and they got back together again, my friend's girlfriend was shot and killed by a misogynistic asshole who nearly killed another one of my friends. Oh, and the same friend who nearly died and nearly drowned was in a mutually abusive relationship with a guy who tried to rape her. A whole load of other things happened too, but those are the high points. Despite all of that, I graduated high school, maintained a job in construction and even got promoted. So, yes, compared to that your daughter is a rich entitled girl who has never had to work for anything. I have seen people like Jess, and I know how they end up. So likening me to him is a massive insult." Xander said in a bland monotone which only served to make everything he was saying seem just that much worse.

Lorelai's face was chalk white. "I-I don't know what to say."

Xander gave her a twisted smile. "Yeah, the story kind of has that effect on people."

"Is it true?"

"Yes."

"Does Rory know?"

"Yes. She knew way back before we broke up at Christmas. That's kind of why we broke up." Because she knows more about what I did than you do, actually.

"Is that why you didn't want me to stay in Sunnydale?"

"Yes."

"Oh, God."

"Definitely."

"I-"

"Please, save your horror. I've heard everything you can possibly say from Rory. Don't worry about it. It's over now. I'm retired from that kind of thing."

"This place your building, for teenagers, it's for people who've been through the same kind of thing, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"But- you were fifteen!"

"Yes. Yes, I was very young. Please don't make horrified or shocked exclamations."

"How can you be so calm about all of this?"

"Practice. Running around like a headless chicken doesn't help anyone. Ever."

"I-I've got to go. I need to think about this."

"Okay. Goodnight." Xander said pleasantly. "Oh, and Lorelai?"

"Mmm?"

"Tell Rory I'm sorry about what I said. I might've overreacted a little bit."

"Right. Yeah. Okay. Of course."

~*~

"Why didn't you tell me!" Lorelai exclaimed the moment that she got home.

"Tell you what?"

"About Xander! He just told me everything."

Rory looked up sharply, alarmed. Surely Xander wouldn't have told Lorelai about demons and all of that? He'd said that he wouldn't. Rory didn't want Lorelai to know about that world. "What did he tell you?"

"That he used to be a vigilante and that he and his friends seemed to live in some kind of catastrophic soap opera where the writers want to put them through as much Hell as they possibly can."

"Oh, that." Rory said, relieved.

"Yes, that! Why didn't you tell me that you're dating Batman?"

Rory laughed despite herself. "Yeah, that's what he said when he told me, too."

"I'm not surprised."

"I would've told you, but... I didn't want to worry you. I broke up with him once before, because I was worried about all the stuff he did. I didn't see the point in putting you through that. And now that he's stopped, there wasn't much point in telling you. I didn't want you to worry about it. And also it's not really my secret to tell."

"That actually makes sense."

"You sound surprised about that."

"No, it's just that I- you're just- you hid it. I guess I should've known that you had a reasonable reason."

"I still should've told you, though."

"Yes, you should've. Well, when Clark Kent comes a-knocking, you can tell me about that."

"Of course. But only if you tell me when Peter Parker comes to the Dragonfly."

"It's a deal."


	20. Chapter Twenty

Xander didn't sleep well that night. Well, he slept even worse than he normally did. He didn't like the way he'd left things with Rory. Or, for that matter, how he'd left things with Lorelai. On the one hand, Rory thought that he thought she was basically Cordelia, which he really, really didn't. While Xander was the first person to admit that his foot spent a great deal of time in his own mouth, he rarely said things in anger. Being compared to Jess and (in his own mind) to Spike had made him say things that he didn't really mean.

Then there was the fact that Lorelai thought that he was some crime fighting vigilante and had been ever since he was fifteen. While that was more or less true, he still wasn't entirely happy that she knew about it. While Xander was by no means a secretive person, he had been happy in his role as the town's mysterious guy. In Stars Hollow, Xander wasn't the demon fighting man he'd been in Sunnydale. He was just a builder and carpenter, with a side-line in pretending to be a cult leader. Admittedly, he would soon be running a home for burnt out and traumatized Slayers, but Xander had kind of convinced himself that the lie he'd told the town about what the home would be was actually true. And in a way, it was.

Still, Lorelai didn't know that he was actually Van Helsing (although, really, he preferred the Batman comparison), and next time he saw Rory maybe there was a chance that he could remove his foot from his mouth. At least for a little while.

Before all of that, though, Xander needed some coffee. Unfortunately, Dawn seemed to have filched his stash, and Giles' tea just wouldn't cut it.

Xander was already sitting down at Luke's when he remembered that Luke had come barging out to tell him that he wasn't welcome there. "Oh, blast." Xander groaned. Luke raised an eyebrow at the unorthodox greeting. "Am I still banned?"

"That depends. Have you done something that I should ban you for?"

Well, that was the question, wasn't it? Had Xander's foot invaded his mouth too many times for even Rory to forgive him? After all, it was hardly their first fight - and they'd only actually been dating for about a week. The months during which he and Rory had communicated by phone while living at the opposite ends of the country could hardly be said to count.

On the other hand, given that Rory had managed to forgive him when he'd suddenly kissed her and then left for Sunnydale without a word, he suspected that she might just be able to forgive him for this. He hoped so, anyway.

In short, Xander didn't exactly know the answer to the question. But only one of them would get him a coffee, so he plumped for "No."

"In that case, you're welcome to sit down rather than hovering just above your seat." Luke said drily. "Coffee, I suppose?"

"Please."

"So, you going to Lorelai's test weekend later?" Luke asked conversationally. While he didn't like that Xander had let Rory think he was dead for two months (even if, after Dawn had yelled at him in the middle of the street, he understood why he had), he was willing to make an effort for the Gilmores sakes. Besides, even though Luke had only met Xander a couple of times when he was staying with Lorelai, he'd seemed like an okay kid. Given that his home town had been destroyed, he figured Xander deserved some slack.

Xander, not knowing what Luke was thinking, was rather surprised at the civility, given their last meeting. "I don't think so. I haven't been invited. You?"

"I'm an investor, so I'd better see what I'm buying."

"That, and you're dating the co-proprietor." Xander said, then inwardly cringed. He barely knew Luke, but he did know that the Gilmores liked him (and that Taylor didn't), which made Luke okay by him. He didn't want to get on his bad side by being too forward.

Fortunately, Luke would never be upset with anyone making any connection between him and Lorelai in that particular way. "There is that." he admitted, smiling faintly. "I'd have thought that Rory would have invited you, though."

Xander shrugged. "I guess it must've slipped her mind." What with me humiliating her grandparents and everything.

"Uh huh." Luke said noncommittally. He was well acquainted with Rory's memory. While it was by no means perfect, it was more than up to the task of remembering to invite someone to a big event for her mother that very weekend.

"Still, my doors will be an important part of the event, I'm told." Xander finished his coffee, then got up. "I'd better go."

"Bye."

~*~

Rory didn't sleep well that night. She generally didn't, after she got into arguments with people that she cared about.

So, after a restless night and being more than usually awake as the sun filtered through her curtains, Rory got dressed and went to Luke's. She'd need to get a head start on her day's intake of coffee if she wanted to make it through the day without taking a nap of some kind.

It was early morning, and only a few people were out and about. While under other circumstances Rory might watch them and speculate about what they were doing so early, she was rather involved in her thoughts as she walked to Luke's.

As a result, it wasn't until she actually collided with someone coming out of Luke's that she realised anyone was there at all.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I-" Rory began only to trail off when she saw who'd she'd just walked into.

"I think that's my line." Xander said, eyes twinkling.

"What?" Rory asked, a little dazed by the sudden meeting. She shouldn't be, she knew - she was fully aware that Xander rarely slept through the night. She'd called him after a demon-related nightmare often enough to know that.

"I'm sorry. About what I said last night."

"What?" Rory asked again.

"Normally I'd make some joke about you running into my rock-hard body giving you a concussion and making you confused, but I don't think that would be appropriate just now."

"You kind of had a point, though."

"Well, I do have a rock-hard body."

"I meant about what you said yesterday."

Xander scratched his chest. "The point about not being anything like Jess still stands. Everything else was pretty much a load of drivel."

"Even the bit about me being an entitled rich girl?"

"Especially that part. I'm really sorry about that. I-I was angry, and my mouth has a tendency to speak without consulting my brain. I didn't mean it."

"Doesn't mean it's not true though. I mean, my grandparents paid-"

"Shut up, Rory." Xander interrupted. "Sorry, but don't listen to what I said. I'm a guy. We've got idiot quotas to fill, you know that. Besides, you're a clever, hard working girl. You could've coasted through on your family's money. But you didn't. You worked for what you have."

"But-"

"I know what I said made you - that it wasn't - that it made you feel like dirt. Believe me, I'm beyond sorry that I said that. It isn't true. Seriously."

Rory waited a few seconds to see if Xander was finished talking. "May I speak now?" she said acidly.

"Oh, right. Yeah. Sorry."

"Xander, I haven't lived your life, and I'm glad about that-"

"Ouch."

"-but I know I'm not an entitled rich girl. I know that my grandparents paid for Chilton and they're paying for Yale. But the reason for that is because I worked hard to get into those places."

"I know. That's what I said."

"I'm not a piece of porcelain."

"Uh... I never said you were. How did we get on to talking about sweets anyway?"

"What?"

"Isn't porcelain a type of sweet? You know, made from almonds?"

"Do you mean marzipan?" Rory asked, baffled.

"Probably."

"Porcelain's a type of thin china."

"Oh. Right. I still didn't say that you were."

"No, but you seem to think that if you say something to me that isn't all sweetness and light that I'll break apart."

"No, I don't."

"Really? So hiding from me the fact that you were nearly married was for an entirely different reason? And your profuse apologizing for making me 'feel like dirt' and wanting me to forget that it ever happened?"

"I already admitted that the thing about the marriage was stupid. But I don't think that saying sorry for saying something hurtful is a bad thing."

Rory struggled to put what she was thinking into words. "No, it isn't, but... it's more the way you said sorry."

"Okay." Xander said, not understanding what the problem was. "I guess I can try and apologize differently in the future."

"You don't get it."

"Not even a little bit."

"It's - you wouldn't let me speak. You wouldn't let me say that you had even a small part of a point. It's like you were so afraid that I'd take it the wrong way that you were basically trying to force your apology down my throat."

"Oh. I see. I might get a bit... overprotective sometimes. I mean, not just about the whole thing where you were turning into a vampire. I-I really don't want to ruin this, Rory. This thing we have. Because pretty much every relationship I had ended because I did something stupid, and my foot pretty much lives in my mouth so there's a good chance that I'll say plenty of stupid things. So, um, it's possible that in the future I might just repeatedly say sorry until you forgive me or beat me to death with a shovel. Or possibly burst out laughing. That's an option too."

"Ah. Okay." Rory said lamely. She wasn't really sure what else she could say.

"So, anyway, I'm sorry about what I said yesterday, but fortunately you've realised that I was talking complete rubbish so can we move past that now?"

"Yeah. I guess so."

"Would you like some marzipan? Is there anywhere around her that sells marzipan?"

Rory smiled. "I think Weston's does, but I'm not really a marzipan fan. Want to come in and get some coffee?"

"I would, but given that we just had something that looks very much like an argument right outside of Luke's, I don't particularly want to go inside and have him leap across the counter and punch me in the face." Xander said ruefully.

"Luke wouldn't do that."

"I wouldn't be so sure."

Rory grabbed Xander's wrist and pulled him inside, saying "You'll never know unless you come in." as she did so.

They sat down at the counter. Luke asked "So, what were you kids talking about outside?"

Before Rory had a chance to answer, Xander said "Oh, just a little lively discussion about whether the type of leader in Machiavelli's "The Prince" would actually work. I personally think that, in a state with an all-powerful monarch, fear would be more useful than respect. Rory's less cynical than I am."

Luke's lips quirked. He repeated what he'd said to Xander nearly a year ago. "Maybe people will surprise you."

Xander looked at Rory and grinned. Rory grinned back. "Oh, they do. Frequently."

"So, coffee then?"

"Of course."

When Luke went off to get them some, Rory asked quietly "Machiavelli? Where did that come from?"

"I do listen when you talk about what you learn, you know. Most of the stuff you say goes way over my head, but some of it sticks."

Rory smiled, and they sat in comfortable silence for a few seconds. Then Rory asked "How can you think that fear would be more effective than respect?"

"Oh, come on. Are you telling me that Nazi Germany managed to take over most of Europe because their citizens respected them? No, they were terrified of those fascists."

"Yeah, but..."

~*~

After a discussion in which Xander tried to tell Rory about what Sunnydale had been like under the respective rules of Angelus and Spike, and how much more effective the va- gang members had been when they were constantly afraid that a sadistic torturing psychopath might just turn on them. Rory said that, eventually, Angelus would've been overthrown. Xander, who'd actually met him, doubted it.

Before they could actually get involved in a fight (or even a lively discussion) about that, Xander suddenly asked "Can I ask you a question?"

Rory, who'd just been about to make a dazzling point about the French Revolution that she was sure would win her the debate, paused. "Okay. What is it?"

"Why didn't you ask me to go to Lorelai's test weekend thing?"

"Oh. That."

"Yeah."

"Well, um, I just wasn't sure how well you and Lorelai were getting on. Besides, it's her thing, I didn't want to ask you because it should really be her doing it."

"You know I've been making doors for her for most of this week, right? And she did tell me that I could take her home and ravish her." When Luke suddenly scowled at him, Xander said "She was joking! You know how much she likes to make me uncomfortable."

"Still, I thought that if she wanted you there she would've asked you to be there."

"Maybe you were supposed to ask me."

"Maybe. You could come in for the dinner, anyway. I think all of the rooms are full."

"Cool. Oh, wait, will there be one of Sookie's pies?"

"Probably."

"Oh, I am so there."

~*~

Later, when Rory and Xander left Luke's to get on with their day and when it stopped being so early that no right-minded teenager would ever even consider getting up, Jess came downstairs. His shift hadn't started yet, so he went to find Dawn.

On the way, Jess had to fight down the urge to smoke a cigarette. During the week that he'd been in his strange quasi-relationship with Dawn, he'd cut down, smoking only a couple a day. He just hadn't felt the need to smoke as many as he once had.

He found her walking down her street. Her face lit up when she saw him, like it always did. Jess wasn't a soppy person, but he would admit (if only to himself) that seeing that was usually the high point of his day.

"Hi!" Dawn said, waving.

"Morning." Jess replied sardonically. "You seem more than usually chirpy this morning."

"I got you a present."

Jess frowned. "It's not my birthday, you know. And I didn't know we were supposed to celebrate our five day anniversary."

"Can't I just get you a surprise present?"

"Oh, sure, you can. It's just that no one ever has."

Dawn decided not to pursue that. "Here."

It was a simple, leather bound book with an elastic band keeping it closed. Opening it, Jess found that it was blank, although the pages were lined. "Well, thanks, but I'm not really the journal keeping type."

"It's not a journal. It's a Moleskine."

"Uh, no, it isn't. Moleskin is a fabric. This, Dawn, is a book. You can tell because it has pages and everything."

"Moleskine." Dawn repeated, emphasizing the last syllable. "Whole bunches of authors use them to write their ideas in. Hemingway, for one. I know you're a big fan of his."

"Uh huh. And what exactly do you think I should do with this? Wait until Hemingway shows up to claim it?"

"No, you should write in it, silly."

"I thought we'd already established that I'm not the journal keeping type."

Dawn sighed. "Jess, it's for you to write your novel in. Or non-fiction, if you swing that way."

Jess looked at her, surprised. "I'm not planning on writing anything."

"I know. But you're doubtlessly going to. I've never met anyone who's more interested in literature than you. It's only a matter of time before you try your hand at writing."

"So, you've got your own one of these, then?"

Dawn shook her head. "I'm more interested in languages than literature, to be honest."

Jess raised his eyebrows at that. Dawn had kept pace with every reference he'd made. She was as well read as he was. Then he remembered her throwaway comment that she had made in the bookshop, that she'd read Plato in Greek. "What languages do you speak, anyway?"

Dawn shrugged. "Besides English? I can get by in Turkish, Latin and Greek. I know a smattering of Sumerian, too. Oh, and I took French in high school."

"Très bien."

Dawn laughed at that. "Merci, mais je doute que je puisse parler comme un citoyen de souche."

"I have no idea what you just said." Jess admitted.

"Anyway, as much as I like reading, I'm a linguist at heart. If you need a translator, though, I'll be there."

"Oh yeah, I'm sure people everywhere will be so glad to know that there's a Latin translation of my book out there." Jess said sarcastically. "Assuming, of course, that I ever manage to get anything published. Which I doubt."

"You should have faith in yourself." Dawn said, poking him in the shoulder.

Jess thought about the implications of that. Dawn had faith in him. She believed that he could make it as an author.

Well. That was... actually really sweet, given that Dawn had only known him for about a week.

"Thanks." Jess said softly, taking the notebook. He didn't know if he'd ever actually write in it, but he appreciated the gesture. A lot.

~*~

Although Rory managed to help show the guests at the Dragonfly to their rooms and answered their questions about their facilities to the best of her abilities (although, once Taylor asked her about the fiftieth question about some tiny detail that Rory neither knew nor, truth be told, cared about, she handed him over to Michel in the hopes that the Frenchman would irritate Taylor so much that he would stop talking), she felt as though she was dead on her feet. She guessed that having a bad night's sleep, then a discussion about Machiavelli and then helping out at her mother's inn really took it out of a girl.

So, once things settled down somewhat and Lorelai decided that the inn could be handled by the actual staff she'd hired, Rory went home and crashed on her bed without even bothering to get undressed. She entered a deep, dreamless sleep within a couple of seconds.

After a couple of hours, Rory's heart stopped beating.

Not that she noticed that, until she woke up later.


	21. Chapter Twenty-One

Jess tucked the Moleskine under his arm. Then he asked Dawn cheerfully "So, are you any good at accents?"

"Not particularly. Why?"

"Well, if you want to be a linguist, shouldn't you be good at accents? Come on. Do a Latin accent."

"Latin's a dead language. You can read or write it, but no one speaks it anymore. There's no accent."

"Okay, what accents can you do?"

"I'm pretty good at stuffy upper-class British. Lower class too, I suppose." Dawn said, smiling slightly as she waited for Jess to ask her to do them.

She didn't have to wait very long. "Ooh, go on then."

"One had tea and crumpets with the Queen the other day. It was simply spiffing, old bean." Dawn said, somehow managing to keep a straight face. It wasn't all that hard for her to sound like a British aristocrat, she'd practiced speaking like Giles years ago (well, actually, she hadn't, because it had happened before she actually came into existence, but she remembered it anyway). 

"Jolly good show!" Jess exclaimed in an accent that was closer to Welsh than anything else.

Dawn giggled. "One might want to put in a little more practice."

Jess, who had been staring at Dawn's lips - ostensibly so he could better imitate her, but he promptly go distracted by, well, her lips - said "Maybe you'll teach me?"

"Sure. Although why you'd want to learn how to speak like that is beyond me."

"Fun, by Jove!" Jess said, punching his hand up in the air. "Anyway, how about the lower class British accent?"

"Sodding Hell!" Dawn said. Her first thought upon saying that was, once Spike got over his amazement at hearing her curse, he would probably laugh himself silly. Then she remembered that he was dead.

Jess was about to ask her how come she'd learnt to speak like one of the Sex Pistols when he saw the smile drop from her face and she looked away. Jess might not be the most astute of people, but he knew what that meant. He didn't want to push Dawn to tell him anything she didn't want to, so he decided to change the subject.

"So, Lorelai's holding some kind of opening dinner thing at the Dragonfly tonight."

It took a moment for Dawn to realise that Jess was expecting some sort of response. "Yeah?"

"Luke wants me to go, mainly so he can keep an eye on me and make sure I don't knock over a liquor store while he's gone."

"Well, I hope you have a good time." Dawn said absently, still not looking at him.

"So, anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to go."

Dawn, having already been emotionally walloped by suddenly remembering that Spike was dead, was taken completely off guard by that. "What?"

"Dinner. Dragonfly. Tonight. Us?" Jess said succinctly.

"Us us?"

"You and I. As opposed to whatever other us you thought I was talking about."

"You mean... like a date?" Dawn queried. Besides the kiss which had established that she and Jess liked each other, neither of them had made anything even remotely resembling a romantic move. On top of that, this was actually kind of her first date.

"No. Not a date."

Or maybe not. "Not a date?" Dawn repeated, thoroughly confused now.

Jess took the Moleskine out from under his arm and absently began twanging the elastic band. "I can see that, from some angles, asking you to dinner might be construed as me asking you to a date-"

"Yeah, that's what a date is."

"-but it isn't."

"Uh... how isn't it? I'm not an Avril Lavigne fan, but to paraphrase her - you're a boy, I'm a girl, isn't it obvious?"

Jess dragged a hand through his hair. "I-I would rather that it not be a date. I'm - well, dates aren't really my thing."

Dawn tilted her head. She wanted to say something like "No, dating isn't my thing." because, at eighteen, the closest she'd ever come to one was hanging out with someone who turned out to be vampire at Halloween. Instead she said "How come? You dated Rory, didn't you?"

"Technically."

"How can you technically date someone?" Dawn said, getting a little exasperated now.

"Well, um, I kind of... don't do well with that kind of thing. While I can happily talk about the Romantic Movement, actual romantic stuff isn't my scene. If you wanted to go and see The Distillers play, sure, I can do that, but dinner... not really. I couldn't even manage Prom. I, uh, kind of skipped town instead." Jess admitted.

"Okay then."

"Okay then?"

"Isn't that what I said?"

"Yeah, but... I thought you'd be kind of... annoyed, I guess."

"I should point out that my school collapsed into a sink hole before my Prom. And that I didn't have anyone to go with anyway. To be honest, going on a definitely-not-date is still the closest thing to a date that I've ever come."

Jess ran a finger along an eyebrow. This conversation wasn't going where he'd expected it to. He hadn't expected Dawn to think he was asking her out on a date (although, come to think of it, he could understand why she would). He certainly hadn't expected her to take the revelation that he'd skipped town before Rory's Prom that well. "Don't you, um, want something more, or something?"

Dawn sighed. "I don't want to be one of those clichéd girls who say they don't want their, um, significant others to change only to turn around and try just that. I can't guarantee that I won't at some point get really frustrated that you're emotionally unavailable. But, really, at the moment, I'm fine with going on not-dates." She didn't add that this was because she had seen what happened when people did start dating and then broke up. Jess had already convinced her to stick with whatever it was that they had rather than boycott it entirely to avoid that, but, if it stayed casual, then that was fine by her.

Jess wanted to say that he wasn't emotionally unavailable. He'd wanted to be there for Rory - but, on the other hand, he'd seen the other side of relationships that wasn't all moonlight and music and love and romance. He'd seen the drunken, drug-using boyfriends that Liz seemed to attract everywhere she went like flies to a rubbish heap. He'd experienced first-hand the kind of things they were capable of.

It wasn't that Jess was afraid that he'd turn into someone like that. Sure, he drank and smoked, but he wasn't like them. But, when he'd actually gotten close to Rory, and Dean had been out of the picture, Jess had screwed everything up. He'd made a complete mess of things with Rory, flunked school, and then left. He hadn't meant for things to happen like that. It had just kind of happened.

Maybe Jess had subconsciously sabotaged things. Maybe, having been witness to a dozen miserable excuses for a relationship and having had his fair share of one night stands, he'd manage to ruin the one genuine relationship that he'd ever tried to embark on, because he didn't have anything to compare it to. He'd floundered, not having the faintest of ideas about what he was doing, because it had been so far out of his frame of reference that he hadn't been able to see it with a telescope.

In short, Jess didn't want to go on a date because he hadn't the faintest of ideas about how to be on a date. If it was a date, he'd mess it up.

But dinner? Dinner he could do.

Instead of saying all of that, he just said "Okay then. You on for dinner?"

"Sure."

~*~

Xander knew that Lorelai would want to talk to him about what he'd told her last night. He figured that she'd probably gotten over the shock by now, and had about a million questions. Given that Xander didn't want to answer any questions about his life in Sunnydale, he figured that the best time to give Lorelai the opportunity to interrogate him would be when she was busy, so that she wouldn't be able to mercilessly pester him when he refused to answer.

So, while she was busy getting the inn up and running, then.

Xander knew that Rory was going to help out there, so when they parted ways he knew that she would be heading over to the Dragonfly. Xander took some time to figure out what he wanted not to say, resolved to stick to that, before going there himself.

He was greeted at the desk by an irritable Frenchman. "'allo. Who are you?"

"Valley Jesus." Xander responded, with a quick smile.

"I am sorry, but zere is no madhouse in Stars Hollow. Perhaps you 'ave escaped from 'artford?"

"I am here to see, like, Lorelai." Xander said, exaggerating his Californian accent. "She's totally expecting me."

"Zere are no divine visitations scheduled for today. Come back later." the Frenchman said, obviously wondering how to make Xander leave.

"Xander? What are you doing here?" Lorelai asked, appearing in the doorway. "Is Michel bothering you?"

"Xander? 'e said 'e was Jesus." Michel said grumpily. "Why could 'e not just give me 'is name?"

"I'm standing right here, you know." Xander pointed out. "And at least I don't have a girl's name."

"Michel is not a girl’s name!" Michel said indignantly.

"It kind of is, actually. Maybe you and Rory should swap names?"

"Xander, stop teasing him." Lorelai admonished. "What do you want? Whatever it is, can you come back in, oh, three days?"

Xander went into the dining room, which was currently the only room not filled with bustling work men or the early arrivals. Lorelai followed. "I wanted to talk about last night."

Lorelai was tempted to make a joke about how she must've been really drunk not to remember them doing anything last night, but she was too tired. After this, she needed coffee. Lots of coffee. "Now? Why now?"

"Because you're so busy right now that you won't follow me for the rest of the day pestering me when I say that I don't want to talk about last night." Xander said truthfully.

Lorelai blinked. "Well, I appreciate the honesty."

"So, we good?"

"But-"

"No questions."

"But-"

"Please?"

"Horses-"

"Lorelai!" Xander exclaimed. Then he paused. "Okay, I've got to know. What sentence could you possibly say that begins with horses?"

"Horses are in the stables."

"Why did you feel the need to tell me that?"

"Uh, can you come back to me when I have enough time to follow you through town to pester you for details about your life as a Zorro?"

"Yeah, while I'm sure that the revelation about the location of your horses will keep me awake all night, I suggest you hold them, because I'm not going to tell you anything." Xander said. "Just out of curiosity, though, why Zorro? I thought you would've gone for Batman."

"Well, Zorro knows his way around a sword."

"Ah."

"Anyway, you have to tell me something. You're dating my daughter, you know. You can't hide something like that."

Xander put his hands on Lorelai's shoulders. "Lorelai. Listen. I'm not not telling you because I don't want you to know. I'm not telling you because I would really, really, really like to forget all about it. So, please, let me do that?"

Lorelai hesitated for a second before saying "Okay." How could she say anything else?

"I promise, when I'm ready - when I can think about it without it being so - without it hurting so much, I'll tell you about it." Xander said.

"Okay." Lorelai repeated. She knew that she would be writing down every idea that popped into her head so that she could compare it to what Xander had actually done.

~*~

Rory didn't even have to open her eyes to know that something was wrong. She felt the same as she had when she'd woken up in the night with supernatural hearing. Only, this time, she wasn't so overwhelmed by it. She wasn't deafened by the sound of her blood pulsing through her ears.

Hold on...

Rory sat up, opening her eyes. She noticed that, although only a tiny glimmer of light from outside was sneaking through her curtains, she could see her room as clearly as if the sun was streaming in.

She searched for her pulse, didn't find it, tried again, and still didn't find it. Okay. So her heart had stopped. 

She was a vampire.

A few seconds and a quick visualization later, Rory discovered that she was no longer nauseated by the idea of biting someone. In fact, it made her salivate, and reminded her of how hungry she was. Or thirsty, she supposed.

Okay. She needed to find Xander. Rory opened the front door, and it was only then that she realised that letting loose a ravenous vampire in Stars Hollow wasn't the best of ideas. However, she still needed to find Xander. He was the only one who could help her.

Sadly, the only phone number she had for him was the one Giles had given her. That was for his room at the branch of the reformed Watchers' Council that he'd been staying when she'd first called him after Sunnydale. She didn't know how contact him in Stars Hollow.

Okay. So, she would go to Xander's house by the least travelled streets and hope that she didn't meet anyone. Rory walked through the door.

Or tried to, at least. Instead of going through, Rory found that there was an impenetrable invisible force field of some kind blocking her exit. Poking an umbrella out of the door quickly proved that it was only her that couldn't leave.

Okay. So, if vampires needed an invitation to enter a house, and she had been turned inside one... maybe Rory needed an invitation to leave? Was that possible? She didn't know, and, really, it wasn't high on her list of priorities right then.

Fortunately, Rory had invited Xander to go to the Dragonfly that evening for dinner. It was late, he might be there now. So Rory called the inn.

"'allo?"

"Michel! It's Rory. Is Xander there?" Rory said urgently. "I need to talk to him."

"Who?"

"Tall, dark haired man, early twenties. Californian." Rory said quickly. "Please tell me he's there!"

"Would zis be the man who introduced 'imself as Valley Jesus?"

"Yes!"

"'e is 'ere somewhere."

"Um, could you bring him to the phone?"

"Zat is not my job."

"Please?" Rory begged, feeling as though she just might burst into tears if Michel didn't get Xander right now.

Fortunately, Michel managed to pick up on the urgency. Rory dimly heard him call "Xander? I 'ave a phone call for Xander. Are you 'ere?"

A moment later, Xander said "Hi, Rory. What's up?"

"Oh thank God. Xander, come home, to Lorelai's. Whatever Giles did didn't work, I'm a vampire, yes, I'm sure, don't bother asking, just get here now and fix it."

"Right." Xander said in a steely voice that Rory had never heard before. "I'll be right there. Try and stay calm."

Xander hung up, and Rory, now left with nothing to occupy her mind and hands with, utterly ignored Xander's words and panicked.

~*~

Xander ran to the parking lot and dove into his car. Then he drove off as fast as he could. He didn't care if Taylor gave him a thousand parking tickets. He was going to be there for Rory.

Heedless of the danger of driving while using a mobile, Xander pulled out his phone and called Giles.

"He-"

"Giles. Ethan lied. He didn't stop what he was doing to Rory. She's turned into a vampire. So, find him, get him to fix it, and then cut him into little pieces from the feet up and make him watch." Xander said in a perfectly flat voice. He hung up.

~*~

Giles looked as his phone for a couple of seconds before swearing in half a dozen different languages. He hunted for the scrap of paper that Riley and given him that had his contact details on it, then hastily dialled them in.

"Major Finn."

"Hello, Riley. Listen, you know what I told you about Ethan before?"

"Yes." Riley replied. Giles had told him all about Ethan's curse on Rory.

"He lied. He didn't break it. She's just turned into a vampire. So make him reverse it."

"Giles-"

"And then shoot him before Xander gets his hands on him. Trust me, it'll be a mercy."

"Giles, it couldn't have been Ethan."

Giles hesitated. "What?"

"It can't be him. He's bound, Giles. After what you told us we asked our null magician to bind him. He can't work magic. Any ongoing spells he had were cancelled by the binding. Trust me, Giles, there is absolutely no way that Ethan did it."


	22. Chapter Twenty-Two

Giles paused, dumbfounded. How could this not be Ethan's fault? This kind of stuff was always Ethan's fault. "Are you sure, Riley? Are you absolutely sure?"

"Our null magician is. She's been doing this for a long time now, Giles. She knows what she's doing."

If Ethan hadn't done it, then some other magic user must have. However, transformation magic was highly specialized art. While it was Ethan's speciality, there were very few others who were similarly capable. On top of that, most of the people he could think of that would possibly have a grudge against Xander were dead. The only possible exception was Amy, and she was far more likely to move against Kennedy than Rory.

"Giles, you still there?"

"What? Oh, yes. Riley, if you wouldn't mind coming over, you might be able to help. Even if Ethan isn't behind this, he might still be helpful. Your null magician, too."

"Sure. What's the address?"

Giles told him, then hung up and headed there himself. While he was barely capable of magic on the best of days, he might be able to help.

~*~

Xander had survived Sunnydale solely because he had managed to avoid being cornered by and vampires or demons that might want to kill him. At least, not when there wasn't a Slayer or an all-powerful witch to save him. He wasn't nearly strong enough to fight a vampire off if it had him trapped.

Unfortunately, he had thought that because Rory had sounded scared that she was turning into a vampire, she wouldn't tackle him to the ground with a flying leap and try and bite his throat out. In this, Xander was entirely wrong.

Fortunately, Rory hadn't been a vampire nearly long enough for her to pick up the kung fu skills they inevitably learnt. Her attack consisted solely of her straining to reach his neck with her fangs. Only Xander's trained reflexes had prevented her from doing so after her first assault. Even then, it was only a matter of time before her vampire strength got the better of him.

The only weapon that Xander has was the stake that he carried in his back pocket. And he really didn't want to stake his girlfriend.

So, instead, he tried to break through to her. "Hey, Rory, you don't want to do this. Stop, Rory. You don't actually want to feed from me Rory, you really don't. Please stop, Rory." Xander said, forcing himself to look into her yellow eyes.

The only sign that Rory heard what he was saying was her giving a snarl.

"Okay then." Xander murmured. "I guess that means that it's time for plan B."

Then Xander head-butted his girlfriend in the face.

After years of practice and watching Slayers execute their fancy moves, Xander was perfectly capable of smashing his forehead into Rory’s nose. He knew that, although he’d done it hard enough to break a human’s nose, it would only hurt a vampire.

When Rory reared backwards, Xander took the opportunity to scramble out from under her and get a few feet of distance between them. He contemplated making a run for it, but this was still Rory (he had to believe that, recent evidence to the contrary) and he didn’t want to leave her.

Rory shook her head to clear the pain, face reverting back to her human visage as she did. “Ow! That hurt!”

Xander shrugged. “Uh, sorry?”

Rory waved a hand. “No it- oh, God. I could’ve killed you!”

“Nah. It takes a lot more than that to kill me, Lion Girl. You, um, alright? I mean besides being a vampire and all that.”

Rory stopped looking at Xander, so that she didn’t have to see his neck throb with blood pulsing through his arteries to his brain. She stopped breathing so that she didn’t have to smell his delicious scent. Now, if only she had a set of sound cancelling headphones so that she couldn’t hear his heartbeat, she’d be set. “No! Of course, I’m not okay! I’m dead, for crying out loud!”

Xander shrugged again. “Well, yeah, but that’s hardly a big deal, when you come to think about it. I mean, Buffy’s got to be a zombie by now, the amount of times she’s died and come back.”

“Oh, thanks, Xan. That’s so comforting.” Rory said acidly.

“Well, sorry. “’m just trying to make you feel better.” Xander mumbled.

“I know, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have-”

“Don’t apologize, Rory. You have every right to snap. But you should know that we’re going to fix this. Don’t worry.”

“What, you’re going to sort it out like you did last time? Yeah, because that worked out so well, didn’t it?” Rory said sarcastically, and then instantly felt bad. The truth was, she felt a lot better now that Xander was here, although admittedly that might have been because of the rather cathartic panic attack that she had been having before he had arrived. She was hiding her remaining near-overwhelming terror behind a mask of snarky petulance.

“Hey, Rory. Giles got turned into a demon a few years back. We fixed that. Buffy kind of got turned into a vampire a few years before that. We fixed that too. We’ll fix this, Rory. That’s what we do.”

Rory sat on the floor and wrapped her arms around her legs. Xander wanted to go and comfort her, but he’d noticed the way she was steadfastly refusing to look at him. He suspected that having him within arm’s reach would be too great a temptation for her. “I’m hungry, Xander.” Rory said, so quietly that Xander almost didn’t catch it.

Xander sighed. He didn’t have any blood in his house, and really doubted that the Gilmores had a nice juicy steak for Rory to suck on until Giles arrived and sorted out this whole mess. “Just try and hold on. Once Giles comes and we get this whole thing sorted out, we can go down to the Dragonfly and have the biggest meal you’ve-

“Shh!” Rory said suddenly. In her attempts to ignore the tempting sounds of Xander’s heartbeat, she’d been focusing on every little sound that she could. And now, she heard the distinctive sound of a car coming closer. “Someone’s coming!”

~*~

Dawn hadn’t dressed up for her not-a-date. That wasn’t to say that she hadn’t thought about it. She had spent what had felt like entire hours wondering whether she should put on a dress, at the very least. But she’d decided against it, just gone for her standard shirt and jeans ensemble. If Jess wanted casual, casual he would have. And, if she was honest, Dawn was more comfortable with casual herself.

However, Dawn was still extremely nervous when she walked into the Dragonfly. She tried to convince herself that she really shouldn’t be - after all, this was hardly the first time that she and Jess had eaten together. Admittedly, grabbing a burger wasn’t exactly the same as sitting down to dinner at a fancy inn.

Taking a deep breath and reminding herself that this couldn’t possibly be as scary as walking into a cave filled with untold numbers of ubervamps, Dawn walked up to the concierge desk and said “Uh, hi? I’m here for a table. I’m, uh, Da-”

“Dawn!” Dawn turned around to see Jess waving to her from the dining room. “Over here.”

“I think you have found your table.” The concierge said with a thick French accent.

“Oui, certainement. Merci.” Dawn replied, before walking through to the dining room. She was glad to see that Jess had decided not to dress up either.

They walked over to a little table in the corner. Jess paused for a second, unsure whether he should pull out a chair for Dawn or not. That was what people always did in movies. On the other hand, this wasn’t actually a date, and he’d never done anything of that sort for Rory. But, then again, would Dawn expect him to do something like that?

Dawn solved his quandary by smiling and saying “You planning on sitting down at some point?”

Jess smiled back, pulled out his own chair and sat down. “I - uh, I’m glad you could make it.”

Dawn shrugged. “I hear that this is the place to be tonight. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“Anyway, Sookie tends to cook-”

“Hello, Dawn.” Dawn looked up to see Luke smiling at her, Lorelai standing just behind him. “It’s nice to see you in a context that doesn’t involve you yelling at me.”

“What?” Dawn said, baffled. “I see you at the diner every day.”

“True. But I’m always so busy that we never actually have time to talk.”

“Well, I think you’ve talked enough now.” Jess said.

“Just trying to be friendly, nephew.” Luke grinned.

“Hi, I’m Lorelai.” Lorelai said, extending a hand. “I don’t think that we’ve actually met.”

Dawn shook her hand. “I know who you are. I guess you probably know who I am, too.”

“In this town, everyone knows everyone, sweetie. Anyway, we should talk at some point.”

“Uh, yeah, sure.” Dawn said, voice making it perfectly clear that that was something she really, really didn’t want to do.

“Well, it’s been nice talking to you.” Luke said, mainly to Jess. “I’ll leave you to your no doubt entirely innocent date.”

“It’s not a date.” Both Dawn and Jess said at the same time.

“Right.” Luke said dubiously, walking away with Lorelai.

“I should’ve suspected that Luke would do something like that. They’ll probably want to go on a double date with us, or something.” Jess said.

“Firstly, God no, that would be really awkward. Secondly, it was kind of sweet.”

Jess frowned. “Okay, since when did sweet mean annoying?”

“Since your uncle actually seems like a nice guy, and isn’t, you know-” Dawn trailed off, unable to talk around the lump that had suddenly sprung up in her throat. So the words “dead because of a brain aneurysm.” went unsaid.

Jess was about to say something when he caught sight of someone behind Dawn. “Oh, Hell. Dawn, if I suddenly dive under the table, promise me that you won’t accidentally get the wrong idea?”

Dawn frowned. “What wrong idea?”

Jess was torn between making his escape and saying something about how Dawn couldn’t possibly be that naive. Unfortunately, this hesitation prevented him from doing either.

“Oh, hello Jess! Fancy seeing you here!”

~*~

Xander couldn’t hear anything that indicated someone’s imminent arrival, but he had plenty of experience with vampire hearing. If Rory said that someone was coming, she was probably right. “It’s probably Giles. Don’t worry.”

Rory sighed (or at least she thought she did. She barely expelled any air. Could vampires even sigh?). She’d thought that it might be Lorelai, and she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from attacking her. “Don’t let him come in!”

“Why? He can’t really help you from out there.”

“If he comes in, I might - you know.”

“Oh.” Xander said. “But you could still get him outside, you know.”

Rory thought about saying that she couldn’t actually leave the house, but she really didn’t want to talk about the possibility of her trying to feed from Giles. “Can we not talk about this, please? When he comes, just tell him to stay outside, okay?”

“Sure.” Xander said. He could hear Giles’ car himself now. He thought about asking Rory if she wanted him to go outside too, but he surmised that she would probably say yes even though she didn’t mean it. Xander thought that Rory needed someone nearby that she knew cared for her. Instead, he said “Um, Rory? I just want you to know that, even if something horrible happens and you stay as a vampire, I still love you. Just so you know.” 

Rory knew that Xander was just trying to be comforting. However, mentioning even the slightest possibility that she wouldn’t ever be human again really wasn’t comforting in anyway. It entirely negated the fact that he had just vowed to love her even if she was a bloodsucking monster.

Giles knocked on the door. Xander got up and made his way to the door before Giles could come in.

~*~  
Dawn knew that there were many things worth hiding under the table from. Vampires. Demons. Anya. However, she had never felt the slightest desire to hide under the table from her own mother. Sure, she knew that Liz was a little odd (her wedding had amply demonstrated that) but she was hardly the kind of oddness that she would want to hide from.

“Hi, Liz.” Dawn said cheerfully. “Is TJ around?”

“Yeah, he’s just over there.” Liz gestured vaguely. It looked as though TJ was unsuccessfully trying to engage Babette in some kind of conversation. “So, are you two dating now? I wondered, after I saw the dance at my wedding.”

Jess groaned and put his face into his hands. Liz had never met any of his one night stands, although she had always said that she wanted to meet his 'girlfriends’. Given that Liz went through relationships faster than just about anyone Jess had ever known, and the fact that he hadn’t actually ever felt anything for any of those girls, he had never felt even the slightest desire to introduce them to her.

Dawn smiled, valiantly trying to act as though she wasn’t blushing. “Oh, no, we’re not dating. This is just a dinner between friends.”

“Oh.” Liz said, believing her. Dawn was thankful for that. " Anyway, if you’re Jess’ friend you should come around at some point, have dinner with us. It’s always nice to have Jess’ friends around.”

“Liz!” Jess exclaimed. “I’m not five!” And I didn’t bring friends home even then, due to the fact that you were high for a not inconsiderable amount of my childhood.

“I know, sweetie. But come around anyway, okay?” Liz said sunnily before going to pry TJ away from Babette.

“Sorry about that.” Jess said.

“What the Hell is wrong with you?” Dawn snapped angrily.

“What?” Jess said, thoroughly confused. “What did I do?”

“Your mom was just trying to be nice! There was no need to be so mean.”

Jess frowned. “Mean? That wasn’t mean. I just said that I wasn’t five.”

“And tried to hide under the table. Your mom’s nice, Jess. You don’t need to treat her like that.”

"I don’t get on with Liz, I told you that already. I don’t want to sit down and have dinner with her. What’s so bad about that?”

“She’s your mother!”

Jess shrugged. “Technically.”

“What does that mean?”

“She gave birth to me. That’s pretty much it.”

“Pretty much what?”

Jess was starting to get angry now himself. He hadn’t tried to pry into Dawn’s past. He hadn’t questioned why she clammed up and looked like she was going to cry when she had done her British accent, or anything else. “Where do you get off, confronting me like this? Dawn, you’re the most secretive person I’ve ever met. You have no right to try and dredge up my past. I don’t want to talk about it, okay? So there. I don’t get on with Liz, and that’s all there is to it. Just drop it.”

Jess had a point. Dawn knew that he had a point. She didn’t have any grounds to pry into his issues with his mother, not after all the things she was hiding from him. On the other hand, Liz was his mom. Dawn knew that she hadn’t always treated Joyce fantastically whilst she had been alive, but if she had the chance to have Joyce back she would jump at it. She’d be the perfect daughter (or at least she’d try to be). Jess actually had the chance to be with his mother, and he was passing it up. Dawn didn’t get that. “But she’s your mom, Jess. You should at least make the effort.”

Jess ran his fingers through his hair, trying to think of a way to change the subject and failing. “Look, if you want my mom, I’ll gladly swap.”

That was the crux of the matter. Dawn wouldn’t see her mom again, so she wanted Jess to at least have a working relationship with his. “M-my mom isn’t - she isn’t around anymore.”

Jess didn’t move. He just exhaled gently through his nose, trying to think of something, anything, to say. But, really, what was there to say in situations like this? “I, uh- I'm sorry, Dawn. Seriously, I, um. Crap. I feel like such an ass now.”

“It’s okay.” Dawn said tremulously, although it clearly wasn't. Before Jess could say anything further, she added “Could we not, you know, talk about this? Can we change the subject now?”

“Uh, yeah. Of course.”

The pair looked at each other from across the table, neither of them having even the remotest idea of what to say.

~*~

“Hey, Giles.” Xander said softly. “Don’t come inside. Rory’s kind of nervous that she might, uh, you know.”

“Right, right. Of course.” Giles said, nodding.

“So, um, any news?"

“Actually, yes.” Giles took of his glasses and began polishing them, a sure sign that bad news was on the way. “Riley assures me that Ethan didn’t do it.”

“What? How could he not have done it?”

“Apparently, he’s been bound by a null magician. That’s a type of magic user who specializes in negating spells." Giles added, seeing Xander's blank look. "If Riley actually has a null magician, Ethan couldn’t have done it.”

“So who did?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know, Xander.”

“Maybe we should call in Willow. She is our Big Good Witch, after all. She might be able to sort of this out.”

“I doubt even Willow can break a spell here while she’s in Brazil. I, uh, asked Riley to bring Ethan and his null magician here. They should arrive in around ten minutes or so. One or the other might be able to help. If they can’t, then contact Willow, by all means.”

“Uh, Giles?” Rory called from inside. “Could you get a burger or something? Something blo- something I can sink my teeth into?”

“Yes, of course.” Giles turned to go, but then remembered something.

Many years ago, when Giles had still been a rebellious young adult, Ethan had taught him a charm. It was a simple charm, well within Giles’ magical capabilities. He used it to transform the weak dross that Americans chose to call tea into proper, English tea. He might, possibly, be able to use it to transform a different liquid into blood. Given that blood was a magical substance in and of itself, it wasn’t certain, but it was better than having a starving Rory launching herself at Xander. “Xander, get me some water. I might be able to help Rory.”

Xander hurried to do so. Giles mentally ran through the words that would change water to blood. Xander brought back a glass, and Giles said the words. Instantly, Giles could feel something happening, the magic being pulled out of him and into the cup. Much, much more than the charm usually used. Enough that Giles contemplated cancelling the spell before he overreached himself and permanently burnt out his ability to use magic.

Just as Giles was about to that, the spell was completed, and Giles was holding a glass brimming with blood. He managed to pass it to Xander before his knees buckled.

Rory could smell the blood, the scent trickling into her nostrils even though she wasn’t breathing (was that just a vampire thing?). It was the most delicious thing that she’d ever smelt. Then she drank it, and nearly had her brain explode. Apparently vampires had much, much better taste buds than humans did, because the blood was like having fireworks going off in her mouth. It was wonderful. So absorbed was she that she didn’t even notice that three people had arrived until one of them said “Hello there.”

Startled, she looked up to see a man a few years older than Xander (Riley, she guessed), the man she dimly recognised as the man who had spilt his coffee on her all that time ago, and a dark-haired woman who looked about the same age.

“You want first crack?” the man who could only be Ethan said. The woman nodded, and gently placed her palm on Rory’s forehead. Her hand was very cool, even to her frigid vampire skin.

“There is something there.” The woman said, with a faint, Russian accent. “But I cannot reach it. I can’t do anything.”

“No problem, Yelena.” Ethan said cheerfully. “I’ll take a shot at it.”

Then he looked at Rory’s neck and frowned. He reached out, lifting the necklace that Rory was wearing. The necklace that had once been a memory-erasing amulet. “Is this what I think it is?” Ethan said thunderously. He whirled around to face Giles (who had managed to lever himself upright and collapse exhausted in a chair) and said “Have you been messing with this girl’s memory, Ripper?”

“Not anymore, no.” Giles said tiredly. “Why?”

Ethan sighed. “I don’t care if you’re the foremost demonologist in Europe, Ru. You don’t know jack about magic. This amulet used to hold a spell. Now it doesn’t. It’s just an empty receptacle. So when I cast my spell, it just dropped right in there, neat as you please. She’s got a bloody amulet that turns her into a vampire.”

“So, if it take it off, will I be human again?” Rory asked shyly.

“It’s not that simple. The spell's bound to you and the amulet. Got to cut the link.”

“Spare us the lesson, Dumbledore.” Xander growled. “Can you fix this?”

Ethan frowned. “Yes. Anyone got a knife?”

“Whoa, what do you want a knife for?” Rory said nervously.

“Relax girl, it’s not for you. I need some of my blood for this.” Ethan glance at Xander. “You want to get one or are you just going to stand there eyeballing me?”

Xander went and got a knife, and Ethan, wincing slightly, slid it across his palm. Rory instantly focused on the blood.

“This might feel a little strange.” Ethan said. Then he reached out and grabbed Rory’s amulet, and began muttering in a language that no one else recognised but nevertheless set everyone's teeth on edge.

Ethan had been right. It did feel exceptionally strange. It felt like Rory had pins and needles throughout her entire body, and not just on her skin either. Even her internal organs felt like that. There’s nothing quite like the sensation of having thousands of miniature people stabbing you in the kidneys.

Then it stopped, and Ethan drew back his hand. “There you go. I’m all burnt out, and you’re human. Happy now?”

Xander looked at Rory for a few seconds, checking to see if Ethan had in fact done what he had said he would. Seeing the healthy blush of blood in Rory’s cheeks and the gentle rise and fall of her chest as she breathed, he was satisfied. He turned back to Ethan, and then punched him in the face. “Yup, now I’m happy.”


	23. Chapter Twenty-Three

“So.” Jess said eventually, after about thirty seconds of neither him nor Dawn saying anything. “I can’t think of any way to change the subject without seeming like a complete jerk.”

“Yeah, I’m kind of stumped too.” Dawn admitted. She didn’t want to talk about Joyce. She’d gotten over her death (as much as she felt she ever would), but sometimes memories would just pop up and completely blindside her, like they were doing now. At times like that, it was generally a bittersweet experience – often, the memories were happy ones, but there was always the knowledge that those were all she had of her mother. Even her grave was gone now that Sunnydale had collapsed. She didn’t want to talk about it. She just wanted to be left alone with her mom.

“I’m guessing you don’t want to talk about it?”

Dawn shook her head, not quite able to force words past the lump in her throat.

Jess sighed gently. “Well, um, I guess I’ll leave you to your… I’ll let you… ah, you know what I’m trying to say.”

Dawn nodded, standing up. “Thank you.”

Jess didn’t move when Dawn left. He just sat where he was, staring at the table, feeling like a callous fool. After a while, he sat back in his chair, looked up at the ceiling and sighed again. This wasn’t the way he’d expected the evening to go.

He stood up, and went looking for Luke. 

~*~

Xander shook some feeling into his hand, and then knelt down by Rory. “How’re you doing, Ro-Gil?” he asked gently, hoping that there wasn’t some other complication that could only be solved by the man whose lights he’d just punched out.

Rory thought for a moment. It was a difficult question to answer. When she had actually turned into a vampire, she’d been asleep. She’d gone from unconscious to vampire, which was a lot easier than a going from vampire to human.

For example, she felt extremely cold. She guessed that that was because, up until a few seconds ago, she’d actually been dead. Now, with blood pulsing through her veins, she was heating up to the normal temperature for humans.

Speaking of blood, she could still taste the blood she’d drunk. It wasn’t the riotous mixture of delicious flavours it had been moments before. It was thick, and coppery, and coating her mouth. It made her incredibly nauseated, especially when she realised that there was a not inconsiderable amount of it in her stomach.

Rory looked over at Xander, and realised that there was really only one answer that she could really give.

“I feel alive.”

~*~

Jess didn’t find Luke. He was about to ask Lorelai, thinking that if anyone knew where his uncle was, she would, but just as he was about to approach her Emily and Richard Gilmore came through the door. Not wanting to be looked at as though he was something that had been scraped of the bottom of one of their shoes, Jess sat down in a chair in the lobby.

“Oh, hello.” Said a man with a stupid looking beard and moustache sitting opposite him. Jess fought the urge to roll his eyes. If he’d known that he would have to engage in conversation with some complete stranger, he would’ve just gone home and talked to Luke in the morning.

“I’m Jason.” Jason said, apparently not to be put off by Jess’ silence.

“Congratulations.” Jess said, sourly. He wondered if Rory’s grandparents would corner him if he made a dash for it.

“You waiting for Lorelai too?” Jason said cheerily, still not getting the hint.

“No, I just enjoy sitting in lobby chairs.” Jess said drily.

“Well, I’ll let you talk to her first. We’ll probably be talking for a while.”

Jess’ curiosity briefly warred with his apathy. It wasn’t even a contest. He stayed silent.

Apparently, though, Jason really wanted to talk, and was willing to latch onto even the most unwilling of ears. “She’s my girlfriend, you see.”

Jess looked up sharply. “Since when?” he said warily. He didn’t think that Lorelai was the kind of person to string Luke along, but this guy seemed pretty sincere. What was going on here?

“Oh, months now.”

“Okay, I’ve got to ask this – does Lorelai know that you’re her boyfriend?”

“Of course!” Jason said indignantly. “We kept it a secret for a while, until her parents found out.” He nodded at said parents. “I’m kind of a persona non grata with them at the moment.”

“Uh huh.” Jess said noncommittally. “What did you do?”

“Me? Nothing. I just filed a lawsuit against Richard because he ruined my career. I’ll never be able to work again. Lorelai and I kind of had some difficulties after that.” Jason explained.

Suddenly it all made sense. Lorelai wasn’t cheating on Luke, or even using Luke to cheat on Jason. Jason and Lorelai had broken up, and Jason didn’t seem to have gotten the memo. “You know she’s dating Luke now, right?”

Jason looked uncertain for a moment. “No, she isn’t.”

“Uh, yeah, she is. Trust me, he’s my uncle. I know who he’s dating.” Jess pointed out. “Besides, you two have clearly broken up. Maybe it’s about time you moved on?”

Apparently Jason wasn’t quite ready for that. He stood up and made his way over to Lorelai and her parents. Jess groaned. He doubted he’d be able to get his hands on Lorelai for hours yet. He got up and left, hoping he could find Luke in the morning.

~*~

Xander guessed he should thank Riley (he’d be damned if he was going to thank Ethan, even if he had been the one to actually save Rory. He figured that stopping at only one punch was thanks enough) but, if he was honest, all he wanted to do was go back to the Dragonfly and have that dinner that Rory had promised him, without any interruptions or supernatural problems. The world could come and bother him in the morning. He just wanted the night off.

So, Xander was just about to make some kind of brisk farewell before scooping Rory up and going off to do just that when Riley reached out to touch the blood-stained amulet. “What are we going to do with that?”

“Don’t touch it!” the null magician (what had Ethan called her? Yelena?) snapped suddenly. Riley recoiled. “It’s still active.”

“What?” Rory said, suddenly going pale. She reached around the back of her neck to unclasp it. “Am I going to turn into a vampire again?”

“No.” Giles said tiredly. “The link to you is broken, but the amulet is still enchanted. Anyone who puts it on and isn’t you will probably turn into a vampire.” He paused. “Or at least, I think so. I’m not actually an expert on transformation magic. It would probably be for the best if no one but Rory touches it until Ethan wakes up.”

“Sorry.” Xander said with as much contrition as he could muster. Which wasn’t really very much.

“Don’t worry about it. He deserved it.” Giles said, smiling slightly.

Rory unclasped the necklace and put it gingerly in the sink, then rinsed the blood off of it. She’d had enough of that particular substance to last a lifetime. Speaking of which, she should probably get herself cleaned up. “I’m just going to go wash this blood off.” Rory said to Xander in a matter-of-fact tone of which she was rather proud. “I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.”

“Sure thing.” Xander said fondly. “You want to go down to the Dragonfly later? Or do you-“

“Of course I want to go. I wouldn’t miss it for the world!”

Xander smiled and sat down in an armchair to wait.

Giles cleared his throat. “Um, Yelena, is it?”

“Yes.”

“I’m Giles. Rupert Giles.”

“I know who you are. Ethan has spoken of you.”

“He has? What did he - never mind. I wanted to ask you something.”

“You want to know how my gift works?”

“Yes. I’ve found records of null magicians, but I had thought that it was a lost art, that all those who practiced it had died out centuries ago.”

“Uh, Giles?” Xander interrupted before Yelena had a chance to answer. “Would you mind not brushing up on your magical history while I’m here. I thought I’d given up research when Sunnydale collapsed. I don’t really want to hear you doing your own research just now.”

Yelena frowned. “That isn’t very polite.”

“Don’t mind him.” Giles said. “He’s had a bit of a rough day.”

Xander was saved the trouble of answering by Rory’s return. She’d gotten changed, and fixed her hair. “Shall we go?” 

“Let’s.” Xander replied, offering her his arm. Rory took it, and they left.

Ethan groaned, and sat up. “What happened?” he said, wincing.

~*~

When Dawn got home, she didn’t bother to get something to eat or even to turn the light on. Instead, she just lay down on the sofa, closed her eyes, and lost herself in the happy memories she had of her family before Buffy had been called and everything had become so complicated. She didn’t care that, technically, those memories had never actually happened. Dawn had eighteen years’ worth of memories; it didn’t matter that only about three years of them were real.

She wasn’t sure if she’d fallen asleep or not. All Dawn knew was that she had been shocked out of her reverie by someone knocking at the door.

She knew without having to find out that it would be Jess. She suspected that she blamed himself for the disaster that their not-a-date had become. It wasn’t actually his fault, of course, but Dawn could see why he might blame himself. Dawn thought it was actually her fault, for pushing him so much about his relationship with Liz.

Still, Dawn wasn’t entirely sure whether she wanted to see Jess just then. It wasn’t that she wanted to be left alone for some quality wallowing time, but rather she didn’t want to open the whole can of worms that was her past.

Jess knocked again. On the other hand, Dawn thought, Jess had been a lot more respectful of her desire not to reveal her history than she had been of his. She didn’t think that he would press her about it. It was entirely possible that he’d come down to suggest they watch Pride & Prejudice to cheer her up or something.

That she could do.

So Dawn got up and opened the door.

She had expected it to be Jess, and in this expectation she was proved totally correct. However, what she hadn’t expected was for him to be carrying a six pack of beer.

“What’s with the booze?” Dawn asked. “You planning on getting me drunk and then having your wicked way with me?” Then, as her mouth caught up with what she had just said, she blushed and looked down at her feet. Oh, way to go mini-Faith!

Jess didn’t appear to notice her blush. “Uh, no. I’m not really that kind of guy.”

“Good to know.”

“I was thinking we could do that thing that people do in movies where they drink and talk about every embarrassing thing their parents have done. Or nice things, if you swing that way. I thought about getting some kind of spirits so we could do shots for each one, but I’d probably end up getting my stomach pumped if we did that and I’m not too keen on that. I thought it would probably be best if we stick with the beer.”

Dawn frowned. “What film are you talking about?”

Jess opened his mouth to answer, but closed it again. Eventually, he said “Actually, I can’t remember. I’m sure I’ve seen it somewhere, though.”

“Well, it’s a nice thought, but I don’t drink.”

“Seriously?” Jess said incredulously. “You’ve never gone out and gotten drunk with your friends?”

“Nope.” Dawn said. She’d been too busy dealing with the fact that she didn’t exist, followed by the fact that her sister was dead, followed by the fact that her sister had PTSD, followed Willow nearly causing the apocalypse, followed by the First’s apocalypse and the whole swarm of mini-Slayers that had brought to go out and do teenager-y things. “That wasn’t really my scene. Besides, I’ve been reliably informed that beer bad.”

“Uh, I think you might be missing a verb there.” Jess pointed out.

“Yeah, you’d think that, wouldn’t you?”

“Oh well, there goes my plan of having a nice cathartic night getting wasted.” Dawn giggled. “What?”

“Nothing. It’s just kind of funny to hear you talk about catharsis and getting wasted in the same sentence. It’s not really something you expect to hear very often.”

“Okay, I can see that.” Jess admitted. “Anyway, I don’t want to pressure you into getting drunk with me. I’m not that kind of guy either. I just figured that… um, well, you seemed sad earlier so I thought I should probably do something and this is pretty much the best ideas I could come up with.”

“It’s not that bad an idea, I guess.” Dawn said. She knew that, during the time that Buffy had been dead, Spike had spent a great deal of his time so drunk that he hadn’t even known what century he was in, and it seemed to have worked well enough for him. “I’m just not that kind of girl.”

“Good to know. Anyway, I suppose I should probably leave to whatever it was you were doing before I came.”

“Wait!” Dawn said suddenly, before Jess could leave. “Wh-why don’t you come in?”

“Well, if you’re looking for a reason, I’m pretty sure that Xander or Giles wouldn’t be best pleased to find out that you were alone with a boy in your house at this time of night.”

“What are you talking about?” Dawn asked, baffled.

“Uh, you asked “Why don’t you come in?” so I was telling you why.” Jess replied. “Honestly, I think you’d probably be better off if I didn’t. You know, if you work through your stuff yourself.”

“Nah. I-I guess I want to talk about it. About her, I mean.” Dawn said, knowing as she did so that it was only half true. While she did want to talk about Joyce, to relive her happy memories, she also didn’t want to be alone. ”If you don’t mind.”

“Sure. I’m cool with that.” Jess replied after a moment’s thought.

“Just, um, leave the beer by the door.”

~*~

Xander knew that this test run for the Dragonfly was an incredibly important event for Lorelai. As such, he probably should’ve suspected that her parents would be there. Of course, being confronted with them in some kind of argument with Lorelai and some other man that he hadn’t seen before wasn’t really the best way to encounter them. He’d known that he would have to make an apology to them for his antics at dinner, but he had hoped that he could catch them in a better mood. He thought that, if they saw him now, they would probably bite his head right off. He wondered if he and Rory could sneak past them and have a nice enjoyable dinner together, without even more drama.

“Don’t even think about it.” Rory said, as though reading her thoughts.

“Aw, why not? Look, they’re having a nice argument - they probably won’t even notice we’re here.” Xander pleaded.

“No. You need to make amends.” Rory said.

“Okay, Little Miss Forceful.”

Rory thought about that for a second. There wasn’t really any reason that Xander needed to apologize to her grandparents right now. It was, she realised, a question of control. She’d just been in Xander’s world, and it had scared her witless, not least because she hadn’t been able to do a single thing to help herself. However, her grandparents were firmly and definitively in her world. This, she could control. 

Rory’s ruminations were interrupted by Xander asking “Who’s the guy?”

“Oh, that’s Jason. Mom’s ex.”

“Ex? Since when does Lorelai have an ex?”

“I think she’s had at least one ever since she was sixteen.”

“Haha. Did it happen while we were, uh, you know…”

“While I forgot that you even existed? Yeah.”

“Do you have any idea what they’re arguing about?”

“I think he wants Mom back. She’s not too happy about that. Neither are my grandparents, because Jason is currently suing them. Oh, and it sounds like they’re angry that she hasn’t told them about her and Luke.”

“How on earth did you manage to pick all of that up?” Xander said incredulously. “It just sounds like a great big babble of voices to me.”

“’cause I’m amazing.”

“You are at that.” Xander admitted. “Well, here I go. Wish me luck.”

“Luck!”

With a deep breath, Xander walked forward, thinking about how he’d rather raid a nest of Fyarls unarmed than do this. “Uh, hello, Mr Gilmore. Mrs Gilmore. I’m very sorry about my behaviour the other day. I’m normally much closer to the epitome of professionalism than that.” Turning to Jason in the hopes that he might be able to stall the forthcoming head-eating, he said “Oh, by the way, I don’t think you really have a shot with Lorelai. Luke’s madly in love with her, and at the very least she thinks he’s ruggedly handsome. Besides, you’re suing her family, and I’ve recently discovered that the Gilmores don’t get on well with people who antagonize their family. Okay, once again, Mr and Mrs Gilmore, I’m sorry, and I’m going to leave now before you say something snarky and I run away crying like a little girl. Okay?”

At that, Xander turned and walked away, hoping against hope that he might get away with it. Sadly, as demonstrated by the multiple cries of “Wait!” it was not to be. With a sigh, Xander turned and walked back.

Lorelai, Jason and Emily all spoke at once, but they’re voices were eclipsed by Richard’s deep booming voice (God, the man seemed even taller than Dean!) saying “How dare you act the way you did towards my wife!”

Xander shrugged uncomfortably. “I, uh… I’d just had a bad day at work.” Whoa, where did that come from? 

Richard raised an eyebrow. “And, pray tell, what exactly is work?” he said disdainfully, clearly expecting him to say something menial like a waiter or a janitor.

“I’m on the board of an international charity that helps teenage girls who have had… let’s say difficult lives and leave it at that.” Xander said. It was technically true. “That’s what the building I went to you to get insured is for, Mr Gilmore. Most of the girls come from big cities, like New York or LA, and we think it might be beneficial if there was a change of pace, so they could immerse themselves in small town life, as it were.”

Xander could quite clearly see the Gilmores trying to reconcile the idea of someone of the board of an international charity with someone who would play such a juvenile prank. Xander wasn’t really surprised that they found it difficult. “What’s the name of this charity?”

“The Watchers’ Council.” Xander replied, and hoped like hell that Giles could somehow pass off the centuries old organization as charity, because he had no doubt that the Gilmores would be scrutinizing it incredibly carefully.

“I’ll have to look into it.” Richard said thoughtfully. “In the meantime, we’d best talk about your abominable treatment of my wife. And your intentions towards my granddaughter.”

“Yes sir.” Xander said, wondering how much of a fuss Rory would kick up if he abducted her and moved as far away from Connecticut as demonically possible. Perhaps some other dimension would do. He’d never liked shrimp much anyway.

Richard looked at Jason, who seemed to have quietly gone into shock. “Although perhaps some other time might be better.”

“Oh, thank God. I mean, yes, of course.”


	24. Chapter Twenty-Four

It was kind of awkward talking about Joyce, to begin with. Dawn had never really done it after she’d died – it had seemed like some kind of taboo topic. Besides, Buffy had seemed to have stuffed all her grief into some part of her head so that she could deal with the upcoming crisis, and Dawn had tried to do the same. It was kind of painful dredging them up now, but it wasn’t the same as it had been in the days immediately following Joyce’s death. Dawn couldn’t quite figure out how.

So, hesitatingly, but with greater and greater fluency, Dawn talked about how Joyce had driven her to her first day of school, and seemed sadder to see her go in than Dawn herself had. How, when Dawn hadn’t wanted to go back the following day, Joyce had let her stay at home and they’d watched TV and eaten popcorn all day. Jess didn’t talk much while Dawn spun these tales. He just made the occasional comment.

Eventually, though, after Dawn had finished talking about a birthday party she’d had when she was eight, Jess said “That reminds me of one of my birthdays. I think I was seven. Liz decided she would make me a cake. Not a bad idea in itself, but Liz isn’t exactly what you’d call talented in the culinary arts. We almost set the apartment on fire. I’m not even sure how.”

After that, they swapped stories back and forth. Each of them stuck to the happier memories – Dawn didn’t want to tell Jess about how Joyce orchestrated a witch burning, and Jess didn’t want to talk about the time Liz had gone to a parents’ evening as high as a kite.

Dawn excused herself to go the bathroom. Jess thought about lighting a cigarette, but he didn’t think Dawn would appreciate him lighting up in her house.

When Dawn came back, she had a bottle of beer in either hand.

Jess raised an eyebrow. “What are you planning on doing with those?”

Dawn shrugged. “Molotov cocktail?”

“Don’t think that’ll work with beer, but you’re welcome to try. Taylor’s down at the inn, so we should be able to test it out at his place without anyone noticing.”

“I was joking, you know.”

“Yeah, I figured that, but I thought that it would probably be safer for you to try and firebomb someone’s house than get drunk. You’ll probably end up firebombing Taylor’s place anyway.”

“I doubt it. My sister’s the violent one in the family.”

“What’s with the sudden change of heart? I thought you weren’t ‘that kind of girl’.” Jess said with air quotes.

“Honestly? I was thirsty, and I saw these by the door. Besides, Buffy had her first big alcohol thing when she was my age. I think I’m overdue for a binge.”

Jess scratched his head. “I think I might be a bad influence on you.”

Oh, yeah, because drinking beer is so much worse than me hunting monsters. Besides, nothing you could possibly do is worse than the kind of things Spike did Dawn thought. What she actually said was “Nah. I’d probably have pulled some other stunt at some point. I tend to do that.”

“Really?” Jess said sceptically. “So you’re not the squeaky clean linguist you seem to be?”

“Oh, no. Did I mention that I played truant for most of ninth grade?”

“Oh, congratulations. It’s good to know you played hooky before I arrived on the scene.” Jess said drily. “I can’t be blamed if you keep up the good work.”

“You’re really serious about not doing the whole peer-pressure bad boy thing, aren’t you?”

Oh, how could Jess explain? He’d done the bad boy thing with Rory, and countless other nameless, faceless others. It had been so easy. And it hadn’t worked. It had led to him leaving Stars Hollow and bumming around the country for about a year before figuring out that he didn’t actually want to leave. So, yes, he could be the kind of boyfriend that introduced Dawn to the shady world of cigarettes and alcohol. He could be the town rebel. But he’d done that before, and he didn’t like where it led. So he wasn’t going down that path again. He’d already kind of stepped into that persona by turning up at Dawn’s door with a six pack under his arm, and it had been a mistake to go that far. He wasn’t going to go down it any further.

So Jess said simply “Yes.”

“You don’t have to, you know.” Dawn said. “Try so hard, I mean. The whole supportive farm boy type thing isn’t nearly as attractive as it looks. Everyone needs a little bit of a rebellious streak, David Robert Jones.”

Jess threw up his hands. “Fine! I give up. If you want to do this, go ahead. But I reserve the right to cut you off when you get horrendously drunk after about half a bottle. I also reserve the right to say “I told you it was a bad idea” in the morning when your brain tries to trickle out of your ears because you’re so hung-over.”

“Yay!” Dawn said excitedly, holding the bottles aloft.

“Okay then.” Jess said, hoping the Dawn wouldn’t be the chirpy, overly friendly type of drunk. “Pass me one, will you?”

Dawn did so, and they opened theirs simultaneously. “Cheers!”

Dawn took a swig, and instantly made a face. “Bleurgh! That tastes like shampoo.”

“It is a little bit of an acquired taste.” Jess nodded.

“Well, yeah. Drinking shampoo would be.” Dawn paused. “I don’t feel any different.”

“That’s because you only had a mouthful, Dawn.” Jess said patiently. “Although, come to think about it, you should probably eat something. Getting drunk is a lot worse on an empty stomach.”

Dawn shrugged. “Meh. I’ll live.”

“You won’t feel like that in the morning.” Jess warned. And then promptly decided to stop being the responsible one. It was boring. He’d had enough of it.

Dawn took another mouthful, and grimaced again. “See, I don’t get why you and your mom don’t get along. Besides the fact that she can’t cook worth a damn, has only a passing familiarity with punctuality, and seems to have had more boyfriends than King Henry VIII had wives, I mean.”

Ah. So they were back on that, apparently. Great. Jess took a deep draught of beer while he thought about what he should say. “It’s complicated, I guess. There’s more to it than that.”

“Okay. Cool.” Dawn said, looking suspiciously into her can. “That makes sense.”

“You lose something in there?”

“What? No. I was just wondering why it tasted so much like shampoo.”

“You think you can work that out just from looking at it?”

“No. Probably not.” Dawn looked up. “So, you want to do that thing? You know, the thing you said earlier. The thing from the movie, even though we can’t remember what movie it was.”

“Well, that was fast.” Jess murmured.

Dawn frowned. “What was?”

“You’ve only had, what, two mouthfuls? And you’re babbling already.”

“Oh, no, that’s not because I’m drunk. That’s because I spent a lot of time with someone who could probably recite the entirety of John Galt’s speech without pausing for breath. I picked my babbling skills up from her.”

“Dawn, Galt’s speech is at least three hours long.”

Dawn shrugged, and took another long swig. “What can I say? Will’s talented.”

“Okay then. How’d you want to do this? You want to suggest something and then we take a drink if our mom has done it?”

“Sure. Sounds like a good idea. Alright then, let’s see… dated a psychopath?”

They both took a drink. “Seriously?” Jess said, a little surprised. “Your mom doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would get involved with a psychopath. From what you’ve said, I mean.”

“His name was Ted. He seemed like a nice guy. He wasn’t.” Dawn said finally, clearly unwilling to go into greater detail. After all, how could she explain that Ted had been a robot built in the 50’s who had drugged people and killed his four previous wives. “Who was your guy?”

“Some junkie. He’s in prison for assault now.” Jess said simply.

Dawn took another drink so that she wouldn’t ask for details. She figured Jess would tell her if he wanted to. “’kay. ‘s my turn. Um…”

“Hey, hold on. It’s my turn.” Jess protested.

“Is it? ‘kay then.”

“How about embarrassed you at school?”

Jess took a drink. Dawn didn’t. “Lucky.” Jess said.

“She’s never embarrassed me at school. She brained someone with a fire axe once, but I wasn’t there for that. She was with my, my Buffy.”

“You’re joking.”

“I never joke about fire axes.” Dawn said, perfectly seriously. She frowned. “You’re kind of blurry.” She took drink on the off chance that this would focus Jess. It didn’t.

Jess tried to figure out how much Dawn could’ve possibly drunk. It couldn’t be more than half a can. He shouldn’t be looking that blurry. On the other hand, Dawn was pretty scrawny, hadn’t eaten anything and had no alcohol tolerance. Maybe she should be kind of tipsy about now.

“See, the thing is, Spike, is that the thing is someone dangerous got into the school. Mom went all Momma Bear. Hit him like he was a-a-an almond.”

Jess thought for a moment. “Do you mean salmon?”

“Probably.”

“Who’s Spike?” Jess said. He remembered Dawn calling him that a couple of times before, but she generally looked like she would start crying if he asked her about whoever he was, so he never had. He felt slightly bad taking advantage of Dawn’s slightly tipsy state, but he was curious.

“He’s a friend of mine. Was. Was a friend. He’s dead now. Deader than he was before, even. You kind of remind me of him. He died when Sunnydale collapsed. He had spiky hair and liked poetry. He smoked too. Had a thing for, um, Buffy. You know the kind of thing. He’d dead now, Spike.”

“Wow, you’re really a lightweight, aren’t you?” Jess murmured. He stood up and gently removed the can from Dawn. It was empty – apparently she’d taken much bigger mouthfuls than he would’ve expected. “Come on, let’s get you some water. You’ll feel better for it in the morning. Trust me.”

After a couple of false starts, Dawn managed to stand up. “Okay. ‘m up.”

“Good. Congratulations. Now, where’s the kitchen?”  
“That way.” Dawn said, pointing at a wall.

Jess sighed. “Great. Just great. Hold on for a second, I’m going to get you some water. Try not to blunder into anything, okay?”

“I’ll have you know that I don’t blunder. I am as free from blunders as a blunderbuss is full of ‘em.”

“That’s nice.” 

It didn’t take Jess long to find some water, and he wasn’t entirely surprised to find Dawn sprawled on her chair again. “Here you go.”

Dawn managed to drink it with only minimal spillage. “There. I’m drunk. I’ve drunk. Whichever.”

“Fantastic. Now, do you know the way to your bedroom?”

“Don’t be patronizzzing.” Dawn drawled. “Spike wasn’t a patron. He treated me like a womb. Woman. Yeah. That. “

“I’m happy for you.” Jess muttered. He looped Dawn’s arm around his neck, not entirely confident in her ability to walk straight. “Lay on, Macduff.”

Dawn began walking. She wasn’t quite as unsteady as Jess had feared. “’s why I had a crush on him, you see. ‘cause I’m an adult. I am. And ‘cause he was hot, for a dead guy.”

Suddenly, Jess felt like swearing.

Dawn had asked him at least half a dozen times if he was hanging out with her to make Rory jealous. He hadn’t been, and he’d been pretty sure that she hadn’t been hanging out with him to make Xander jealous. Now, it turned out that he reminded her of some guy like Spike who she had a crush on.

Wonderful. Just wonderful. He was the goddamn rebound guy.

Jess stayed with Dawn until she got to her bedroom, completely ignored her trying to give him a drunken goodnight kiss, and left without a word.

~*~

As soon as Xander and Rory left, Yelena turned to Giles and asked “What is wrong with that boy’s chest?”

“What? What do you mean? What’s wrong?”

“That is what I asked you.” Yelena replied patiently.

“Um, nothing. At least not as far as I know. Why, do you know something?”

“He bears the mark of rather powerful magic. I was just wondering why, and what it did. He certainly doesn’t seem to mind, which is rather surprising.”

Giles’ face lit with understanding. “Oh, that. Xander got in the way of a powerful witch last year. She hit him with a stream of energy while she was trying to activate Proserpexa’s Temple.”

Ethan looked up from his bleeding hand, which he’d been vainly trying to staunch with layer upon layer of kitchen roll. “You’re kidding. How in the name of all the gods was he not fried to a cinder?”

Giles shrugged. “The witch in question was his best friend. It’s a long story.”

Before either Yelena or Ethan could say something else, Riley said “As nice as it is to catch up with you, Giles, we need to go.”

Ethan looked at him in surprise. “Why?”

“Because HQ wants us back in the field. We’ve got work to do.” Riley answered, speaking to Ethan as though he was a child.

“How exactly do you expect me to help you with that?”

“The same way you’ve been helping for the last four years or so.” Riley was beginning to wonder if the spell had scrambled Ethan’s mind somehow.

“Didn’t you hear me when I said I was burnt out? I’ve got no magic, mate. Couldn’t even transfigure a fly. I’ll be only slightly less useless than Ru here.”

“Hey!”

“Face it, Rupert, you know next to nothing about magic. You’d be a liability more than anything.” Ethan said, smirking.

“Burnt out?” Riley repeated before the two Britons could get into an argument. “As in, you’ve got no magic?”

“Yup.” Ethan looked down at his hand again. “Exactly like that.”

Giles looked at Ethan. Assuming that Ethan was telling the truth (which was, based on past experiences, rather unlikely) then Ethan had to have voluntarily burnt himself out to save Rory. Ethan was right; compared to him, Giles knew very little about magic. But Giles was sure that Ethan had known exactly what he had been doing when he’d burnt himself out.

The question was, why had he done it? Magic had been the very core of Ethan’s being, more even than Willow. While he’d never gone to magical drug dealers like she had, Ethan was every bit as much of an addict. He had used his magic for every little thing, even things that were easier to accomplish by hand. Giles couldn’t imagine him giving all of that up for Rory. He could’ve easily have said that there was nothing that he could’ve done. Sure, that would’ve lead to him and Xander beating him to within an inch of his life, but at least he’d still have his magic.

“Is he telling the truth?” Riley asked Yelena.

Yelena moved across and put a hand on Ethan’s forehead, just as she had with Rory. Ethan shivered. Her hand was freezing. “He is.”

“Why?” Giles asked, before he could stop himself. “Why did you do it?”

“The spell demanded a sacrifice. If it had worked the way I’d planned, it would’ve taken Rory’s humanity, and you’d have had no chance to get it back. But it didn’t, so I gave it my magic instead. Although do me a favour and don’t let anyone touch the amulet. It’s still active.”

Riley seemed satisfied, but Giles wasn’t. “You didn’t have to do it, though. You could’ve done nothing, and we would have had to call in someone else. Why did you do it, Ethan, really?”

Ethan smiled. “Let’s just say that I'm not a completely bonkers adrenaline junkie."

~*~

It seemed as though the older Gilmores seemed more concerned about Jason and the fact that Lorelai hadn’t told them about the fact that she was dating Luke than Xander’s presence, which was good. He didn’t particularly want to be interrogated about his job when he wasn’t entirely sure whether his cover story would hold water.

He went back over to Rory. “How was that?”

“Good. Is Luke really wildly in love with Lorelai?”

“God, yes. Couldn’t you tell? I thought he might’ve been your dad, when I first came through town.”

“Really? I didn’t – he never said anything.”

“I’m betting Lorelai didn’t either.” Xander said. “Anyway, would you mind if I make a call before we actually get started on this romantic dinner thing?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

Xander pulled out his phone and hit a number from speed dial. The other person picked up almost before he had brought the phone to his ear.

“This really isn’t a good time, Xander.” Willow growled.

“Why’d you answer so quickly, then?”

Silence. Then “I jinxed my phone, okay? I thought I might get into a situation where I don’t have use of my hands, and I might need to call someone for help.”

“So, are you quite literally tied up at the moment?” Xander asked curiously.

“Something like that. Anyway, would you mind hurrying up, please? There’s something in the middle of me right now.”

“Don’t you mean you’re in the middle of something right now?”

“No.”

Xander had a sudden mental image of Willow tied to her bed, with Kennedy. He instantly felt kind of nauseated, because Willow was the closest to a sister that he had, and he really didn’t want to be thinking of her in that way. On the other hand, he also felt slightly aroused, because he was still a hot-blooded male, and that was so much more erotic than linoleum.

“Oh, my God, Will! Next time you’re in town, you are so going to have to whip up one of your memory spells. I totally need brain bleach, now.”

“Seriously, Xander, what did you want? Hurry up.”

It took several seconds before Xander got back to the matter at hand. “Oh, right. Yeah. Well, would you be able to make the Council look like a charity that helps young girls? It’s for my cover story down here. I'm pretty sure that some people are going to be taking a real long, hard look into it quite soon. And I just realised that I'm talking to you about long hard things. Not that you’re into that kind of thing, these days… oh God, I wish I could wipe my own memory.”

Willow laughed. “Don’t worry about it. But yeah, I'm sure I can whip something up. How soon do you need a complete history of a fictional charity for?”

Xander looked over to where the elder Gilmores were still arguing with Jason and Lorelai. “Oh, I’d say you have at least a couple of hours.”

“Oh, good. It might be a while until I can get around to it.”

“God, Will, I didn’t need to know that. Anyway, I’ve got to go, I need to stop before I get embarrassed to death. Say hi to Kennedy to me. On second thoughts, don’t. Argh! Anyway, thanks, Will, see you some other time you’re fully dressed.” Xander hung up before he could say something else that would mean that he’d never be able to look Willow in the eye again.

After spending a moment unsuccessfully trying to scrub his memory of the events of the last couple of minutes, Xander turned back to Rory. “Shall we dine, Milady?” he asked, extending his arm.

Rory took it, beaming. “Let’s.”


	25. Chapter Twenty-Five

In Xander’s experience, dates weren’t the normal romantic outings that they were for most couples. Given that, on the rare times he and Anya had actually ever tried to go out to dinner, they’d been inevitably been called in due to some demonic crisis, it had never exactly been something he’d done very often. On top of that, given that Anya was a thousand-year-old ex-demon, strange dates had been par for the course. Xander hadn’t ever even gone on a real date with Cordelia, either. They’d spent their time making out in every unoccupied space that they could find. And, given that every other person Xander had ever developed an attraction for ended up trying to kill him, his experience with dates was rather limited.

Even with Rory, the closest they’d ever come to a proper date had been the day they’d spent together after he’d revealed that demons, vampires and magic existed. Given that a large proportion of that date had been spent talking about his demon hunting, it wasn’t really that surprising that the date had been rather unusual.

So, although this date had been preceded by Rory turning into a vampire, Xander was mildly surprised when the only unusual thing that happened was when Lorelai slumped into a chair at their table to vent about the argument with her parents. Even then, it wasn’t entirely unexpected, and it didn’t last all that long. Luke turned up, revealing that he’d been hiding so that he wouldn’t get dragged into the argument, and the pair then left together.

Other than that, the date went as Xander had always imagined a date should go, up to and including him (thoroughly) kissing Rory goodnight at the door to her room.

~*~

Lorelai was tired. This wasn’t really all that surprising, given the pitiful amount of sleep she had managed to get thanks to preparing for this weekend. But she was even more tired than she had thought she would be. What should have been the crowning moment of triumph for her entire life had been ruined by the surprise appearance of Jason, who had of course pulled her parents into an argument that they had just been dying to have ever since Xander had pulled that stunt of his.

Still, that was over now. At least for the time being. Jason was gone, probably for good. Her parents had clearly been stunned by the revelation about what Xander did for a living, which had probably curtailed the argument. All in all, besides the mildly catastrophic evening, Lorelai’s day had gone well.

She did however regret that she was too exhausted to even have dinner with Luke like she had planned.

“I’m sorry about all of this, Luke. I didn’t plan on having our evening hijacked by my parents and Jason.”

Luke smiled. “Its fine, Lorelai. Don’t worry about it. I’ve waited this long to have ‘our evening’, I think I can wait a little bit longer.”

Lorelai looked at Luke questioningly. “This long? How long is this long? And please don’t read any innuendo into that, I'm too tired to be intentionally dirty.”

“Trust me, innuendo is just about the furthest thing from my mind right now.” Luke replied. “And I don’t think it would be a good idea if I answered your question. Don’t really want to seem like some love-struck fool.”

“That long, huh?” Lorelai said quietly.

Luke nodded once. “That long.”

Lorelai thought about that for a while. She had, she could safely admit, if only to herself, had a crush on Luke for quite a while now. She’d even brought it up with Rory once, years ago. Rory had emphatically told her not to pursue the relationship because they would starve if they ever broke up. So she’d never really gone for it.

“Why now?” Lorelai asked suddenly. She probably shouldn’t have asked such a personal question, but then she was tired and being upfront was one her numerous virtues.

Well, that was certainly an interesting question. With his spontaneous marriage with Nicole over and done with, and Rory off at university, it had seemed like, for the first time, both of them were free. Then, when Jess had turned up again, Luke had realised that he didn’t want things to end before they even began because of a communication failure, which had seemed to be the primary problem between Jess and Rory.

“It’s complicated.” Luke said simply.

“I hear that.”

“Well, are you going to sleep her or would you like me to drive you home?”

Lorelai intended to tell him that she was just going to crash in one of the empty rooms, but what she actually said was “I’m glad you did this. Lord knows, I wouldn’t have made the first move.”

Luke smiled warmly. “Good to know.”

“Well, um, I'm just upstairs, so… goodnight, I guess.” Lorelai said, turning to go.

“Hold on a second.” Luke said, putting a hand on Lorelai’s shoulder. She turned back to face him, and he kissed her. He didn’t think about it, he just did it. If he had thought about what he was doing, Luke would never have done it. It just seemed like the right thing to do. Besides, he had been wondering what it would be like for years to do it.

It wasn’t a passionate kiss, though. Just a simple, short kiss that he broke off before it had a chance to develop into anything further.

“Goodnight, Lorelai.” Luke said gently before turning to leave. He didn’t see the rather gobsmacked Lorelai with her hand pressing against her lips watching him go.

~*~

Luke wasn’t really all that surprised when he came home to see Jess reading something, with some music blaring. It wasn’t exactly an unusual sight. He was, however, rather surprised when Jess looked up when Luke came in, put aside his book and turned off the music. Normally, when Jess was reading, he shut out the world. A building could fall down around his ears without him even noticing.

“So, I was thinking about getting a GED.” Jess said without preamble.

Luke blinked, not sure if he had heard correctly. Was Jess actually volunteering to do something involving work? “What?”

“I want to get a GED.”

“Why? You were dead set against going back to school. Why do you suddenly want an education now?” Luke asked. “Wait. Hold on a second. This doesn’t have anything to do with Dawn, does it?”

Jess absently picked up a pen and put it in his mouth as though it was a cigarette. Jess was never far from a pen – he was the only person Luke knew who was keener on annotating books than Rory. Every book he had was filled with the black scrawl of Jess’ spidery notes. “No. I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. I don’t want to be stuck in some dead end job flipping burgers every day for the rest of my life. Or, you know, go back to Walmart. I want to do something more interesting.”

Luke ignored the dig at his job and instead said “Well, that’s great, but can we talk about all the details tomorrow? It’s late.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure.” Jess said, immediately picking up his book again.

~*~

Rory had some difficulty getting to sleep, and not just because earlier she had quite literally slept as though she was dead. Whenever she closed her eyes, she could see the pulse jumping in Xander’s neck and the desire she had felt to sink her teeth into it flared fresh through her mind. It made her feel ill.

She could’ve killed him. She couldn’t help but think that, if it hadn’t been him that come through the door, if it had been someone less practiced dealing with vampires, if it had been Lorelai, then she would’ve killed her. She would be a murderer, and a cannibal. As it was, she had only attempted to kill someone.

All through dinner, she had been waiting for Xander to say something. She didn’t know what she had expected him to say, but she had expected something. As it was, she had been kept on tenterhooks, trying to relax and fully join in with the banter, but Xander hadn’t done anything. It was as though he had completely forgotten the entire thing.

It wasn’t until a while later that Rory realised that Xander had had to deal with many similar occurrences. He had even told her as much. What had been, to Rory, an earthshattering, life-changing event, hadn’t even been something noteworthy to Xander. To him, it was just another day at the demon hunting office.

Rory didn’t know how she felt about that. She had already broken up with Xander once because of what he did for a living. She knew that he had given up being on the front lines for her, and she was grateful for that. But if it had followed him here, into this safe haven…

She rolled over to pick up her phone, as she had done so many times before when he had still been living in Sunnydale and she had called him because she had had nightmares about the videotape she had shown him.

“Hey there.” Xander picked up almost immediately, as he usually did. Rory supposed that was one of the benefits of having an insomniac boyfriend. “Everything okay?”

“Um, yeah. I guess.”

“Did you have a nightmare or something? You can tell me, you know.”

“No, it’s not that.” Rory replied. “What if that’s not it?”

Xander paused as he tried to figure out what Rory was saying and failed. “What if what isn’t what?”

“What if there’s more coming? I mean, more besides Ethan. You said that you’re a demon magnet, and-“

“Rory. You don’t have to worry about that. I talked to Willow, and she thinks she can come up with some binding sigils that will stop people from being able to use magic in town. And we already know that there aren’t any vampires or demons around. You’re safe here.”

Rory sighed. “I don’t like being like this, you know. It’s just… it’s all kind of scary.”

“Rory, do you want to break up with me?”

“What? No! Of course not – why would you even ask that?”

“Look, I can’t promise that I can keep you safe. I can’t promise that I can keep Lorelai or Luke or even your grandparents safe. And I couldn’t do that even if didn’t do I do. Do you understand? There was this girl a few months back, Cassie. She prophesised her own death. Buffy stopped a cult from sacrificing her, stopped a booby trap from killing her, but in the end her heart gave out. Do you get what I'm saying? This is what my life is like, Rory. If you want out, that’s fine, just say the word and I'm gone. You know that.”

“Wow. Where did that come from?”

Xander paused, grasping for the right words. “I'm sorry, I'm not usually so…”

“Vehement?”

“I don’t know what that means, but sure, sounds about right. I’m not usually so whatever it was you just said, but… honestly, you turning into a vampire scared the hell out of me.”

“You have no idea how much better that makes me feel.”

Xander blinked. “Wait, what? Aren’t women supposed to like having strong courageous men around?” Then Xander remembered Riley and the mess he had made trying to be strong enough for Buffy.

“Sure, strong is good, but… when you didn’t say anything at dinner, I realised that it was kind of another day at the office for you. I mean, it changed my life, literally, and then it was like you completely forgot about it. It’s good to know that you’re not some flawless Superman. It makes me feel better knowing that we were both scared.”

“I know that we Scoobies tend to get a little blancmange about things after saving the world a few times, but seeing you like that and knowing there was nothing I could do other than head-butt you – yeah. That was a whole world of not fun.”

“On the other hand, at least you managed to work pudding into a sentence.” Rory said lightly.

“What? Did I miss something? How did we get onto food?” Xander asked, thoroughly nonplussed.

“You said blancmange. You meant blasé.”

“Meh. Close enough.” Xander said with a shrug that he somehow managed to communicate down the line. “So, we’re not breaking up then?”

“No, you noodlehead. I love you, in case you hadn’t noticed.” Rory said, then held her breath as she realised what she had just said. She was, she realised, perfectly comfortable doing so. Xander had already said it to her, and hadn’t made a big deal of it when she hadn’t said it back.

Xander paused, obviously digesting the news. “So, I'm a noodlehead, am I? It’s not enough that we males need an idiocy quota, but you have to give me a noggin made of food?”

“Well, you can be noodlenoggin if you prefer. Since when are you British, anyway?”

“Bah. Blame Giles.”

“Still, it will go with your serious face.”

“How can a noodle have a serious face?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you look in the mirror and find out?”

~*~

Dawn woke up because she was hungry, but when she actually became fully awake she realized that eating would definitely be a bad idea. She felt nauseous in a way that she hadn’t since – well, ever. On top of that, she felt as though a pair of dwarves were using her temples as anvils.

She guessed that Jess had been right when he had so emphatically told her that drinking alcohol wasn’t a good idea. At least she hadn’t gone all cavewoman and brained someone with a club or set something on fire. Or at least, she thought she hadn’t. Dawn did have a vague memory of trying to kiss Jess, though. If she had, she couldn’t even use the excuse that she wasn’t actually human, and therefore it was hardly surprising that she had gotten intoxicated so easily.

Dawn had a vague inkling that greasy food and water was supposed to be good for hangover, both of which were things to be found in abundance at Luke’s. Hopefully she could even avoid the inevitable ‘I told you so’ that she was absolutely positive Jess was dying to give her.

She should probably wash up first though. Dawn hated sleeping in her clothes, it always made her feel scummy. On the other hand, if she had in fact tried to make out with Jess it suggested that she hadn’t gone too far and done something that she would regret.

~*~

Luke hadn’t had a chance to talk to Jess about his decision to restart his education, even though his nephew had surfaced rather earlier than he usually did. He figured that he would have time once things in the diner calmed down a little after the breakfast rush.

However, when Dawn turned up wearing sunglasses and clearly hung-over, and Jess promptly vanished into the kitchen even though he had no reason to be there and normally avoided that place like the plague, Luke began to suspect that maybe it would be a good idea if he and Jess sat down and had a talk. Luke didn’t know what had happened between the pair last night (one second they'd been talking at the inn and the next they'd both gone) but if it involved Jess plying her with alcohol, then Luke really needed to have some strong words. They were both underage, after all.

Dawn plonked herself down at the counter. “Got any hangover food there, Luke?” Dawn said, before wondering whether it might’ve been a good idea not to broadcast her hung-over state.

“Sure, I'm sure I can whisk something up.”

“Is Jess around?”

Luke shot a quick look at the kitchen. Jess still hadn’t emerged. He really didn’t want to get involved in whatever was going on between the couple, but he didn’t think that Jess would be best pleased if he told Dawn where he was. If Luke was going to do the whole parental ‘Don’t drink, don’t smoke more than you already do, don’t take advantage of your sort-of-girlfriend’ speech, it would probably be best if Jess wasn’t already mad at him.

“Nah. I think he just popped out. I’ll tell him you want to see him, if you like.”

“Shouldn’t be that hard. He’s hiding in the kitchen.” Seeing Luke’s shocked face, Dawn added “What? I'm a lot more observant than people give me credit for.”

“Yeah.” Luke said dumbly. “He’s in the kitchen.”

“Got any idea why he’s hiding from me?”

“What? You mean you don’t?”

“Oh yeah, I asked that question just for fun. Of course I don’t know!” Dawn snapped, then said “Sorry. Its these damned dwarves.”

Luke decided not to ask. “No idea, although I guess it has something to do with him getting you drunk.”

“What? He didn’t get me drunk. Well technically, he kind of did, but only because he provided the alcohol. I did all the drinking. And… okay, it’s complicated. Would you mind getting him, ‘cause I don’t think I'm going to get my breakfast until we sort out whatever’s going on.”

“Uh, yeah. Sure.” Luke said. He poked his head into the kitchen. “Hey Jess? Dawn wants a word.”

Jess scowled, and Luke was sure that if looks could kill he’d be nothing but a small pile of ash. “You told her I was here?”

“No, actually, she figured it out by herself.”

“I don’t want to talk to her.” 

Luke shrugged. “Fine.” He left.

“Wait!” Jess called. Luke smiled to himself, and returned. “Aren’t you supposed to try and convince me to talk to her?”

“She’s your… whatever she is to you, Jess. It’s your decision.”

Jess’ eyes narrowed. “Wow. That’s a new approach for Fix-Everything-Luke.”

Luke shrugged again. “What can I say? I'm flexible. She’s also just out there, and I'm sure you can unbend yourself enough to go out and talk to her. Just remember, Jess, use your words.”

Somehow, Jess’ scowl managed to deepen even further. “Thanks for that.”

“Anytime.” Luke said cheerfully. “So, you going out or are you just going to lurk in here for a bit longer?”

For a moment, Luke thought Jess was going to stay, but after a couple of seconds he sighed and said. “Whatever.”

“Great.” Luke said cheerfully. Then he ushered Jess out of the kitchen and said “Okay, you two, take it outside. I’ve got a business to run here.”

~*~

Once they were outside, Dawn instantly said “Okay, so what's the problem?”

“Oh, not that again.” Jess groaned.

“Worked well enough last the time. Besides, I'm too hung-over to be original. So what’s the problem?”

For a second, it seemed as though Jess wasn’t going to answer. Then he suddenly said “What the Hell are we doing here, Dawn?”

“Well, personally, I'm breathing, talking, wilfully missing the point, being sarcastic and wondering what you’re talking about.”

Jess sighed. “I meant what are we doing. I realised today that, although I know that you’re well-read and reasonably intelligent for all that you hold some ridiculous views about literature, but the fact remains that I don’t even know your surname.”

“Summers.”

“Yes, thank you for completely missing the point.” Jess said drily.

“What’s yours?”

“The point is, I thought I could do this whole mysterious thing. I thought I was fine with you not telling me about your past, and just generally being a complete enigma, but I guess I was wrong about that. So, yeah, this isn’t really working out quite as well as I hoped.” Jess said, carrying on regardless.

“So you don’t want to tell me your surname then.”

“You’re really hung up on that, aren’t you?” Dawn shrugged. “It’s Mariano.”

Dawn tilted her head to one side, only to immediately regret the unnecessary movement as her pounding headache reached new heights. “You’re Italian?”

“Have you even been listening to what I’ve been saying?”

“Oh, yeah. I just don’t get why you’re suddenly going all weird about it. I mean, sure, I haven’t told you my entire life story, but neither have you. And honestly, I don’t care about it a great deal.” Dawn said succinctly. “Do you speak Italian?”

“Yeah, a little. Which really isn’t the point.”

“Are you going to get to the point soon? Because I totally don’t get why you’re wigging out.”

Jess was silent for a second. “You don’t remember what you said yesterday, do you?”

Dawn shrugged. “I’m sure I said plenty of delightful things. I generally do. Which one’s giving you problems?”

“You told me about Spike.”

“Right.” Dawn said neutrally. “Nope, don’t have a clue what I said. Although I don’t see why anything about Spike would freak you out so hard.”

“Well, the fact that he seemed to be a literate bad boy type who smoked and was kind of like me that you had a crush on and is now dead is the main reason.” Jess said blandly.

Dawn rubbed her forehead, wishing she had stayed at home to suffer through her hangover in peace. “Oh, Hell. You’re jealous. You’re jealous of a crush I had on a dead guy. Do I even need to tell you how stupid that is?”

“Well, yeah!” Jess said loudly. “Because it seems to me that you’re only with me because I remind you of him, which seems like a perfectly reasonable reason to freak out to me!”

Dawn raised a finger. “Firstly, I like you, not ‘cause you’re like Spike, although you are, but because despite the fact that you have some ridiculous ideas about literature you’re well-read and reasonably intelligent. Secondly, I haven’t made an issue that you only like me because I’m just about as similar to Rory as someone can get without cloning her or bringing in her evil doppelgänger from another dimension. I mean, we even look the same! You and Spike look completely different. Secondly, and I am absolutely certain you already know this but you’ve forgotten because you're a guy and therefore kind of dense, but up until I met you I kind of had a crush on Xander. Now, while Xander might be reasonably intelligent, he thinks that comics are actually books and that Jane Austen was named after the capital of Texas. I don’t think he’s read a book in his life, and he doesn’t smoke. So he’s just about a different from you and Spike as anyone can get, okay?”

Jess digested that. “Okay, but look-“

“Jess, stop talking before I feel obligated to give you a shut up kiss, which will probably be awkward for both of us and won’t do my hangover any favours. You're being an idiot.”

Jess held up a hand. “Can you just hold on a second before you start insulting my intelligence again? Right. Thanks. Look, Dawn, I know you like – liked Xander. That isn’t really a problem. But I don’t think I can do this. It’s too hard. I feel like at any second I’ll say something that will make you go retreating into the past, and I just can't deal with that.”

“Okay.” Dawn said impassively.

“That’s it?” Jess said, surprised. “’Okay’?”

“Well, I figure that you're just having a miniature freak out at the moment, like I did after you kissed me, and once I no longer feel like my head is being used as a football in a game between some giants with really, really hard feet, I’ll come up with some pretty speech that’ll probably be stolen from someone, and then you’ll realise that you're being a complete idiot.” Dawn replied. “So, unless you’ve got some other drivel you’d like to spout, I'm going to go and have breakfast.”

Dawn walked inside the diner, leaving a rather confused Jess standing outside.


	26. Chapter Twenty-Six

“So, if you can't do magic, what good are you?” Riley asked tiredly.

Ethan shrugged.

For some reason Giles felt the need to defend the man who had been his friend on and off for thirty years. “Even if he can't do magic, he’s an accomplished theoretical magician. There’s no doubt that he can be useful training any other magic users you might have.”

“What Giles means to say is that I'm of no use whatsoever and you should release me from what is essentially indentured servitude immediately.” Ethan said.

“Giles, we have plenty of magic users. Ethan is useful - was useful, because he is very good at what he does. If he can't do it anymore, then we don’t have any use for him.”

“Wonderful!” Ethan said, smiling broadly. “So can I finally take my leave of you irritatingly manly military types now?”

“He won’t get his magic back. The place where it should be has been filled in.” Yelena said suddenly. “And he's not really a nice enough person to keep around without his gift.”

Ethan put his hand on his chest and struck a dramatic pose. “Oh, you wound me to the quick, Yelena.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “You certainly seemed to care for me.”

Giles looked at Ethan. “You’re kidding me.”

“What? She’s an attractive woman, Ru, you have to have noticed that.”

“No, not that. You're acting like… like Xander. Since when are you so childish?”

“Hey, I can't be a proper Englishman like you all the time. Its gets boring after a while.”

“But surely a modicum of decorum-“

“I just lost my magic. I think I'm entitled to act out a bit, don’t you?”

“You think you’re entitled to act out now? What have you been doing ever since you were a teenager then?”

“Hello?” Riley exclaimed, interrupting the bickering. The two Englishmen sounded like a stereotypical married couple. “You do realise that it’s currently the middle of the night and that we’re in someone else’s house, don’t you? Now is the time to argue.”

Giles took off his glasses and started polishing them. Ethan crossed his arms and muttered petulantly “He started it.”

“Good Lord, must you be such a child?” Giles exclaimed.

“Child? You don’t know what my childhood was like, Mr Born-With-A-Silver-Spoon.”

“Oh, let’s get into that right now, shall we? At least I never turned anyone into a-“ Giles began before stopping abruptly, shuddering as a great cold washed over him before settling deep into his chest. He looked away from Ethan to see Yelena had rested a hand lightly on his shoulder.

“Unpleasant, isn’t it?” Ethan said wryly. “And you wondered why I wanted out.”

Yelena said something in what sounded like Russian, which Giles didn’t understand. Then she said “Stop arguing. We’ll be leaving now. Ethan, you're free to do what you like.”

“Excuse me?” Riley said. “I don’t think we’ve come to a decision about what to do about Rayne.”

Yelena moved her hand, but the cold didn’t leave with her. “Really, Major? Is there some other decision you wish to make?”

Riley looked down. “No, I suppose not.”

Yelena smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Good. Farewell, Ethan.” She touched Giles again, and the cold faded away. She swept out. Riley stayed for a second, looking like he wanted to say something, but he didn’t and left too.

“Well.” Giles said, after they'd left. “She’s cold.”

Ethan smirked. “Not in the important places.”

“Good Lord, Ethan, must you be such a cad?”

Ethan shrugged.

Looking for some excuse to change the topic, Giles’ eyes fell on the necklace. “So what’s going to happen to that? We can’t really leave it here, and if we can’t touch it-“

“Don’t worry about it. It’ll fade away by sunrise. One of the perks of vampire-related magic.” Ethan replied. “The question is, what am I to do? I’ve got nowhere to stay and no means to get one.”

Giles looked at him thoughtfully. He trusted Ethan rather less than he could throw him, but Ethan could hardly cause any trouble without magic. Besides, what he had told riley was true; Ethan did know a lot of theoretical knowledge. Far more than he did, although he would never admit it. And, with new and untrained Watcher’s flooding in, they needed more than Willow and the retired members of the Council who had avoided Caleb’s bomb.

“I was actually planning on leaving town in a few days. I think Xander and Dawn are sufficiently settled in. We could use someone of your… talents at HQ.”

“Great.” Ethan said sarcastically. “I’m swapping one indentured servitude for another.”

“Do you have another option? More importantly, do you have another option that’ll get you a bed tonight?”

“Touché.”

As they left, Giles didn’t notice that the amulet vanished from the table. If he had, a quick search through Ethan’s pockets would have quickly revealed its location.

“So, this bed… are we sharing it?”

“Shut up, Ethan.”

~*~

The following day, things weren’t quite as hectic at the inn. Most of the kinks had been sorted out, and Lorelai no longer felt the need to rush around and oversee every little thing. It was when she was having a coffee break that Rory came and sat down opposite her. She looked like she had something on her mind.

“Hey there.” Lorelai took a sip of her coffee. “How’s it going?”

“Good.” Rory said, preoccupied.

“So, a penny for your thoughts.”

“I never got that expression. Why are thoughts so cheap?”

“You’re stalling.”

Rory sighed. “Yeah. Anyway, you know how I said I should talk to you about stuff?”

“We do talk about stuff. We talk about stuff a lot. I think people would probably be happier if we talked about stuff less. Which stuff in particular did you want to talk about?”

“Um, stuff related to Xander.” Rory said, not looking at Lorelai and fidgeting with the edge of a napkin.

“God, what’s he done now? Gone and assaulted the Mob singlehandedly?” 

Rory shook her head. “No, nothing like that. It’s about… us. And, you know, stuff that usually goes with being an us.”

Lorelai didn’t understand, until she looked closely at her daughter. “Oh. You mean you and him having-“

“Yes.” Rory interrupted. “You wanted me to tell you before it happened, so I'm, uh, telling you.”

“If you're thinking of having it, I'm sure you can say the word.” Lorelai said dryly.

Rory went pink and looked up at the ceiling. “Sex.” She said eventually. “Sex. I think that Xander and I might have sex.”

Lorelai stopped smiling. “Are you sure you’re ready for that? I mean, you’ve only really been together for a few weeks now.”

“We actually did the long distance thing for months before we broke up at Christmas.” Rory pointed out. “I just… didn’t mention that to you at the time.”

“Along with the fact that you’re dating Zorro. At least he’s not 25 years older than you.”

“I think you’re getting your Catherine Zeta-Joneses mixed up.”

“Probably.” Lorelai conceded before turning back to the matter at hand. “He’s not pressuring you or anything, is he?”

Rory smiled faintly. “Oh, no. He left the state and went half-way across the country to stop us from getting intimate last time.”

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

Rory thought about the heated make out session they had had shortly after she had stopped turning into a vampire (the first time). If it hadn’t been for his scar, she didn’t doubt that they would’ve gone further. Even last night, when he had kissed her goodnight at her door, she had thought about asking him in. “Honestly? I'm kind of scared about the whole thing. But it’s going to – I mean, I want it to happen.”

Lorelai looked at her daughter and felt sad in a way that she hadn’t since the first few weeks when Rory had moved to Yale. “Wow. You’re all grown up.”

Rory blushed. “Hardly.”

“Still, I reserve the right to give him the scary parental talking to.”

“Of course. Although I think you’ve already given him the shovel talk enough times by now. He's probably gotten it memorised.”

~*~

Xander was walking down the street when he felt a hand on his shoulder, and it took a great deal of effort to quell the instinct to turn and strike. This was Stars Hollow, not Sunnydale.

“Hey. I want a word with you, Mister.” Lorelai said.

“What is it?” Xander asked warily, instantly thinking about what had happened in Lorelai’s house last night.

“I wanted to ask what you’re intentions are regarding my daughter.”

Xander blinked. He didn’t know what he had been expecting, but it certainly hadn’t been that. “What? Are you asking if I'm going to marry her or something?”

“No. She and I had a talk this morning.”

“Uh, congratulations? Am I supposed to divine what the conversation was about? Because I should probably tell you that magic isn’t really my strong suit.”

“No. I wanted to ask you… are you going to leave town again? Or pull off some crazy stunt, or go back and try to clean up Gotham City?”

Xander rubbed his chest. “Are you asking me if I’m stringing her along? Are you seriously asking me that? Do you think I would be here, building a goddamned convalescence home of all things, if I didn’t have every intention of sticking around? Do you trust me that little?”

“I don’t know! You’re a nice guy, Xander, but you’ve got a history that’s kind of shady. Scratch that, it’s really, really shady. Like the pitch black kind of shady. And I can overlook that, because you clearly care for her, but how do I know you won’t go back to that again and leave her here heartbroken?”

“Because I love her.” Xander said simply.

Lorelai didn’t want to be doing this. She liked Xander, she really did, and he made Rory happy. But she had been there when Rory had thought that Xander was dead, and she didn’t think that Rory could survive going through something like that again. So she said “Is that enough, though?”

Xander sighed. “I wouldn’t be here is it wasn’t. Lorelai, I could be out there fighting the good fight and all that, but I'm here. I'm here for her. There is nowhere I would rather be. I will be here precisely as long as she wants me to be here, and I'm not going to leave to go and fight crime or whatever. She knows that. I thought you did too…”

“I had to ask.” Lorelai said softly.

Xander smiled sadly. “I get that.”

“I want to believe you, I just…”

“She’s your daughter, and you don’t want me to hurt her. I get that. My track record in that area isn’t exactly stellar. And I can't say we won’t have our ups and downs – you know about the argument after I pranked your parents – but I'm here for her. If you can't trust me, then trust Rory. I'm pretty sure she knows what she’s doing.”

“You’re pretty good with words, you know.”

“I think Rory’s rubbing off on me.”

Lorelai sighed. “I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt, Batman. But if you hurt her, then the Joker ain’t got nothing on me.”

Xander ripped off a textbook salute. “Yes ma’am!”

~*~

Xander returned home to find Giles packing, with Ethan lounging in an armchair. “Uh, Giles? What's going on here?”

“Oh, hello there.” Giles said breathlessly, lifting a teetering pile of books. “I'm packing.”

“I can see that. But why?”

“For the same reason people usually pack, you mug.” Ethan said drily. “We’re going somewhere.”

Xander pointed at Ethan. “Shut up. I wasn’t talking to you.”

“Oh, that’s charming, that is.”

“Ethan is, for once in his life, telling the truth. I believe you are sufficiently settled in here. You don’t need me around anymore.”

Ethan spread his arms. “What is this, Bash Ethan Day?”

Xander ignored him. “But why is he going with you? As opposed to, say, being fitted with concrete overshoes and flung into the lake?”

“Apparently it is.” Ethan muttered.

“Because, even though he is lying untrustworthy snake, he was a very talented mage. Given that I'm mildly surprised that the magic users Willow’s been training haven’t accidentally blown up the city yet, we can certainly use someone with a good grounding in theoretical magic.”

“Oh, please, stop. The flattery is simply overwhelming.”

Xander saw the logic in that. He didn’t really want to, but he saw it. “Can’t you at least get Will to turn him into a puppet or something?”

“And the bashing continues.”

“Shut up, will you?” Xander snapped.

“Please do. We can do without a chorus.” Giles added.

Ethan subsided sulkily into his chair.

“We will take every precaution, but given that he has no magic and he will be surrounded by Slayers who could no doubt take him down with one finger, the amount of mischief he can get up to will be limited to being an irritating pest.”

“I’m starting to think that life would be better on the road.” Ethan muttered.


	27. Chapter Twenty-Seven

Xander left Ethan and Giles together, because he didn’t like Ethan at all – every time the man showed up things went wrong, and he thought that after what he had done to Rory he deserved something a bit more fatal than joining the Council. He didn’t want to spend any more time with him than he had to.

He was walking to Doose’s to get some coffee when something crashed into the side of his head. He instinctively dropped into a crouch, pulling out the stake he always carried. Then he looked down to see what had actually hit him.

It was a hat. At least, Xander thought it was a hat. It shared certain characteristics with a hat. It looked like a beret. Only no beret that Xander had ever seen shared that rainbow of colours. It was knitted, too, by the look of it. It was, all in all, quite possibly the most ridiculous thing that bore even a passing resemblance to a hat.

Assuming that it hadn’t just dropped from the sky (outside of Sunnydale, such pure randomness just didn’t happen) he looked around to see who had thrown it. He promptly saw Lorelai standing on the other side of the street, looking like she was having difficulty restraining her laughter.

Xander tucked away his stake, and rather gingerly picked up the hat, in case it turned out to be a demon with even less fashion sense than he had (although he knew Cordelia would protest that such a thing wasn’t possible) and crossed the street.

He held out the hat. “I think you dropped something. And by dropped something, I mean that you hurled this… I assume it’s a hat… across the street.”

Lorelai took a second to compose herself. “Actually, I did drop it, but some freak wind caught it. It’s a good thing your head was in the way, or else who knows where it might have gone?”

“I think that catapulting this thing into space would probably have been a better option. Although it might mean that aliens think we’re declaring war upon their senses.” Xander replied.

“It’s not that bad.”

“It kind of is. Anyway, what lead you to be carrying such a thing, only to allow it to be swept away by a freak wind that I'm betting was precisely as strong as your throwing arm?” Xander asked.

“I got a call at the inn just now.”

“And you wanted to rush out and share it with me?” Xander put his hands over his heart and batted his eyelashes. At least, he blinked rapidly, which he thought was the same thing. “I’m touched, I really am, but I'm taken. Not even sharing phone calls with me will seduce me.”

“You know, it’s kind of weird bantering like that when you’re dating my daughter.” Lorelai pointed out.

“You started it, remember? Anyway, just the other day you offered to let me ravish you. You’re just as guilty as I am.”

“Good point. Anyway, the call was from my dad.” Lorelai said.

“Did he say that I'm utterly forbidden from associating with the Gilmore family on pain of death?”

“Similar. He invited you to play golf.”

“Golf? As in the game where you hit a little oddly-shaped ball around?”

“Is there some other kind?”

Xander shrugged. “I thought that maybe it was the code name for some kind of grandfatherly interrogation.”

“Oh, I'm sure that there will be plenty of that going on.” Lorelai replied. “But you’ll be playing golf while he does it.”

“Crazy golf or standard golf?”

“Does it make a difference?”

“Well, crazy golf can be a form of torture…”

Lorelai smiled. “I’m guessing that you're not really keen on accepting.”

“I'm fine with golf. Not sure about Mr Gilmore, although it’s probably going to be awkward. But I'm guessing that the reason you have that hat is because it’s a golfing hat, and you want me to wear it. And that’s just not cool.”

“Aw, come on. I dare you.” Lorelai pleaded.

“You still owe me a hundred dollars for when I pretended to be Valley Jesus when I met your mother.” Xander pointed out. “We both know what that led to. I can't even cash in a dare.”

“You’re scared?” Lorelai said, waving the hat under his nose. “Of a little hat?”

“I think it might eat my brain.” Xander admitted, eyeing it warily. “Or possibly make everyone for miles around roll on the floor laughing at the riotous colouring and sheer shapelessness that is that hat.”

“Shush! You’ll hurt its feelings.”

“I’m sure it’ll survive. It probably thrives on the sheer embarrassment it causes.”

“I’ll tell you what. If you wear this to the golf game, you’ll get to dare me to do something, and I’ll do it.”

“Done.” Xander said immediately. “Although I thought I was meant to be making a good impression on them, and I don’t think that will help.”

“You might be surprised.” Lorelai said. “I feel like I should be scared by how quickly you took my offer, though.”

Xander interlaced his fingers and put on a stereotypical evil mastermind expression. Given that he had actually met a few, it was pretty convincing. “Well, Kirk has seemed a bit lonely, lately…”

Lorelai blanched. “No. God no.”

Xander laughed. “Just kidding. I’ll just hold it over your head for a bit.”

“I’m beginning to regret making that deal now.” Lorelai lamented.

“So when do I have to go to… where am I going, exactly? Does Stars Hollow even have a golf course?” 

“No, it’s in Hartford. And he wants to see you there at three.”

Xander blinked. “Wait, he wants me to play golf with him today? What if I can’t make it?”

“Can you make it?”

“Well, yeah, but that’s not the point. It’s kind of short notice, isn’t it?”

“I think it’s probably a little bit of revenge for what you did to Mom.”

Xander groaned. “I'm never going to live that down, am I? And it seemed like such a good idea, too.”

“I enjoyed it.” Lorelai admitted. “But it probably wasn’t the best of ideas when you’re dating their favourite granddaughter.”

“They have other granddaughters? I thought you were an only child. Oh, does Rory have a sister? Is she called Charlotte but everyone calls her Charlie so that everyone thinks she’s a guy? Then everyone would think that you have sons, but-”

“No, to all those points. It’s kind of disturbing the speed with which you came up with that thing about Charlie, though.” Lorelai said.

“Oh, so she’s their only granddaughter, then? So she must also be their least favourite.”

“Your logic is unassailable, but I wouldn’t share it with them.”

“Good plan.”

“Anyway, I’ll give you directions and this hat, and then you can go home and quietly panic because you’ll realise that you’re going to have to wear it public.”

Xander’s eyes narrowed. “I’m tempted to dare you to ride through town on a horse like Lady Godiva.”

Lorelai laughed. “Yeah, you should be so lucky.”

~*~

After Xander and Lorelai parted ways, she went onto the diner. Luke seemed to be having a quiet meltdown behind the counter.

“What’s up, Doc?” she said, sliding into a chair at the counter.

“I think I might have agreed to play golf with your father. I’m not sure. He talked, and I think I agreed…” Luke said. He had the shell-shocked look that Lorelai was used to seeing when her parents manipulated someone into doing something they really didn’t want to do. She’d seen it in the mirror often enough.

“When?” Lorelai asked. “’cause if it’s today at three, he asked Xander as well. Hopefully you’re mutual flailing will cancel each other out.”

“I don’t flail.”

“Trust me.” Lorelai put a hand on Luke’s arm. “When my dad starts in on you, you’ll flail. You’ll flail around like a flailing flailer.”

“That’s a lot of flailing.” Luke murmured.

“It’s not too late for us to make a run for it. We could be over the border in no time.”

“Which border? Mexico? We live in Connecticut. It would take us days to drive, and if I'm going to have to wait around in an airport I might as well just play golf instead.”

“Well, in that case, I’ll have coffee before you go and flail yourself to death.”

~*~

Xander got there early, and rented a set of golf clubs for an exorbitant amount of money. He was pretty sure he could’ve bought a car for less than that.

He wasn’t nervous, because after you’ve descended into a cave full of Ubervamps there isn’t a lot that will make you nervous, but he wasn’t looking forward to it. He found himself hoping that some kind of apocalypse would happen which could only be resolved by a glorified bricklayer.

Xander had never played proper golf. He’d played mini-golf in Sunnydale occasionally, although that had stopped once they’d taken Ted that one time. Buffy had claimed that he had ruined the experience for her, but Xander thought that it was just because the fact that Joyce had been dating someone had unnerved Buffy so much that even her Slayer skills hadn’t stopped her from playing really badly. It had been the only time that Buffy had ever taken more than three shots to sink the ball.

Of course, he had hit around an empty can occasionally while the gang waited for vampires to pop out of the ground, but that hardly counted.

The fact that he was a pretty good archer and decent swordsman did nothing to convince Xander that he could play golf without doing something embarrassing like hit the ball in completely the wrong direction, or mistake his caddy for a small tin to keep teabags in.

Luke showed up a while later, and although Xander felt a little guilty about it, seeing how uncomfortable the older man looked made him feel better. At least Willow had come up with a cover for him that was exactly the kind of thing that Mr Gilmore would approve of. He guessed that owing a diner wouldn’t be nearly as impressive.

So Xander tried to calm Luke down as he took him to rent his own clubs. He thought about offering to pay for them, buy decided against it.

When they left the shop, Mr Gilmore was outside.

The first thing he said was “Why are you wearing my granddaughter’s hat?”

Xander gaped for a second, before he realised that he was talking about the hat that Lorelai had given him. She hadn’t told him that it was Rory’s. He suddenly realised that it had been the hat that had cheered up Luke, rather than his feeble attempts.

“Um, she gave it to me.” Xander lied quickly. “She said it was a mandatory golfing thing. I'm thinking now that she was just pulling my leg.”

“Indeed.” Mr Gilmore said noncommittally. “Haven’t you played golf before?”

“No. Archery’s more my thing.” Xander said before stopping to think about it.

“Really? I didn’t think that was taught in schools.”

“It isn’t. Or at least it wasn’t in mine. It was something of an extra-curricular activity.”

“Are you any good?”

“I can hit a moving target at about fifty feet.” Xander said self-deprecatingly. He had no idea whether that was good or not. He wasn’t even sure that it had ever been as much as fifty feet. He might possibly have done it at a further distance. In the heat of the moment you didn’t stop to check things like that. Especially given that arrows rarely killed demons or vampires outright.

“Impressive.” Mr Gilmore turned to Luke. “And you? Have you ever played golf before?”

“Uh, no.”

“Oh well.”

~*~

The afternoon wore on, and Xander discovered that he was actually pretty good at golf. Nowhere near as good as Mr Gilmore (who, after a while, asked Xander and Luke to call him Richard) but certainly better than Luke. When he was playing, you could probably stand directly in front of him and he would still miss you.

He talked about why he was working for charity and what it did – he was glad that he had asked Willow to make a cover, because Richard almost seemed to know more about it than he did. When Richard asked about the business side, he only said that he didn’t deal with that, but that he knew they were funded by an antique dealership. That was more or less what the Watchers’ Council had been, after all.

Richard seemed satisfied. Xander was considerably happier about that than he had expected.

On top of that, no one went into hysterics about his hat, so all in all it wasn’t as awful an afternoon as he had expected. He even managed to stop Richard from making Luke flail too much.

He doubted that Richard liked him very much (and after Ice Bank Mice Elf, Xander wasn’t really surprised) but at least he didn’t seem like he was actively going to try and sabotage his relationship with Rory. 

~*~

After they did all the holes and Luke and Xander went back to Stars Hollow, Xander went and found Rory. She only laughed a little at the fold cap. He put it on her, and wasn’t really all that surprised by the fact that she looked absolutely adorable and not at all like some shapeless rainbow thing was trying to eat her head.

They walked down by the lake, and he told her how the game had gone, and that he no longer held the title of the Gilmores’ Most Hated Person, and they made out under a tree.


	28. Chapter Twenty-Eight

Generally, if Xander went to sleep at all, he did it so late in the day that it was pretty much the next day. He’d gotten into the habit when he’d been an ordinary teenager who went to bed at ordinary times suddenly confronted with the task of patrolling graveyards every night. If he went to sleep early, he’d sleep through the night. Xander had kept the habit even when he wasn’t patrolling and he’d become used to operating on very little sleep.

These days, he’d watch TV or read a comic now that he no longer had to deal with Potential Slayer crises or meet friends before patrol. Sometimes Dawn would drop by, if she’d finished reading (or more usually rereading) whatever book she was on at the time.

Usually, Dawn knocked before coming in, even though she had a key. There was always the chance that she would interrupt him doing something, after all. 

So, Xander was pretty surprised when he was woken the morning following his golf game by a knocking at his door. A quick look at the clock on his bedside table revealed that it was far too early in the morning for it to be Rory or Lorelai, and Dawn didn’t ever come around at this time. Besides, at the moment she was occupied with whatever problems she and Jess. Xander had hardly spoken to her for days. Come to think of it, he should probably find out exactly what was going on between those two.

Right now, though, Xander should find out who was at the door. He got up, threw on some clothes, hoped he was semi-presentable and went down to open it.

Upon opening the door, he was greeted by two women, one smiling and one scowling.

“Hey, Xan!” Buffy said happily. “How’re you doing?”

Xander blinked. It was too early for this. “Is there an apocalypse? Tell me there’s not an apocalypse.”

“Chill, Xan-Man.” Faith said, smirking. “There’s no world-ending going on at the moment.”

“We’re just here to see you.” Buffy added. “Can’t we just drop by and see our favourite carpenter?”

“Of course you can, Buff.” Xander nodded at Faith. “Her, on the other hand, I'm not too keen on.”

“I thought you were getting on okay these days.” Buffy said.

“Uh, no. You told me to work with her, remember? You thought, and I quote, ‘We should foster good relations between the core Scoobies.’ That doesn’t mean we got along.”

Buffy frowned. “I said that? I don’t sound like that. That sounds like Giles.”

“Sorry to break it to you, B, but when you get into speechifying, you could give any Brit a run for his money.” Faith said. “And I really ain't a core Scooby.”

“Oh.”

“So, why’d you drag her along? I'm guessing that scowl means she didn’t want to come.” Xander asked.

“Remember I told you a while ago that she broke a mini-Slayers arm? Well, this is her punishment.” Buffy replied.

Xander eyed Faith. “How exactly is this punishing her? I know I'm not exactly her favourite person, but if you want to punish her you should put her in a room with Wesley for a bit.”

“Xander, you know we aren’t contacting Wesley and… the others since they-“

“Joined Wolfram & Hart, yeah, I remember.” Xander interrupted. “But I'm not particularly looking forward to having her trying to knock me out again.”

“Try?” Faith grinned. “You ain't got Vi and the other minis lurking around. You’ll go out like a light.”

“See, Buff?” Xander complained. “This isn’t punishing her. This is punishing me.”

“No, Xander, her dropping by to see you isn’t her punishment. Thought we’d try small town life for a couple of days. You know how Faith gets when she’s out of the action for a while.”

Xander sighed. “Buff, there isn’t going to be any town left if you leave Faith here for a couple of days.”

“Oh, I'm not leaving. I thought I’d meet your girlfriend, now that there isn’t an apocalypse going on.” Buffy replied. “Thought I’d see this Jess as well. I never got to give the shovel talk before.”

Xander rubbed his chest and sighed. “Oh, this is going to be fun.”

~*~

Jess was pretty good at avoiding people. Admittedly, they were usually teachers, Luke, or the occasional police officer, but if he didn’t want to be found he could do a decent job of keeping a low profile.

He’d managed to avoid Dawn every time she came by the diner, either by ducking into the kitchen or by being at the bookstore. He’d also managed to hide in the aisles in the bookstore when she was there, too. He doubted he could carry it on forever (Dawn was more persistent than the usual type of person he avoided), but hopefully she would stop sooner or later. Jess wasn’t really all that great at long term planning.

However, Jess wasn’t good at avoiding people he didn’t know were looking for him. As such, he was completely taken by surprise when he came downstairs to start his shift and a petite blonde grabbed him by the arm and dragged him outside with surprising strength for someone who was at least six inches shorter than he was.

~*~

Shortly after Xander gave Buffy directions to Luke’s, Faith went into the living room and grabbed a couple of chairs, holding one under each arm.

“Whoa!” Xander exclaimed. “What are you doing? You can’t just up and steal my stuff while I'm standing here.”

“Relax. I thought I'd catch the show. It ought to be fun seeing B tearing this guy a new one. Thought I'd bring chairs. Unless you don’t want to come?” Faith replied, gesticulating with a chair in way that wasn’t possible unless you had Slayer strength.

Xander thought about it for a minute. “Okay, you grab the chairs, I’ll bring the popcorn.”

Faith laughed.

~*~

“I haven’t met you before, have I?” Jess said. “I probably would’ve remembered that.”

Buffy frowned. “No, we haven’t met. But you know my sister.”

Jess tilted his head to one side. “Um, I do?”

“Oh, yes. Dawn.”

Jess’ face lit with understanding. “Oh, you’re Lazarus. Wow, you two look nothing alike.”

Now it was Buffy’s turn to be confused. “Lazarus? What are you talking about?”

“Oh, Dawn mentioned that you have a habit of not staying dead.”

Buffy blinked. “She told you about that?” she said, surprised. She hadn’t thought that Dawn would’ve revealed the whole supernatural situation to someone she had only known for a brief while, even if she was sort of dating him. “What else did she tell you?”

“Well, she said that the Modernist movement was a complete waste of time and the Romantics were the height of literary achievement. I know that’s kind of shocking, but it’s not really enough to make you look like you’ve just swallowed a lemon.” Jess said drily.

Buffy scowled. “I do not look like I swallowed a lemon.”

Jess shrugged. “Okay, I'm not going to argue with the girl who has a death grip on my arm.” Buffy released it rapidly. Jess rubbed it absently. “Dawn didn’t mention that you were on steroids.”

Okay, so Dawn hadn’t told him everything. She wondered what Jess knew. Buffy would have to have words with her sister later. “I'm not on steroids. Do I look like I’m on steroids? I'm not on steroids.”

“My arm begs to differ.” Jess muttered. Then, louder, he said “So, Lazarus, is there some reason you dragged me outside, or can I go back to work now? It’s only a matter of time before Luke sends out a search party.”

“Stop calling me Lazarus. My name’s Buffy.”

Jess chuckled. “Really? I figured Dawn was kidding about that. I mean, I know people have funny names down in LA, but Buffy? Really?”

Buffy’s scowl deepened. “My name is not funny.”

Someone yelled from across street. “Actually, B, it kind of is.”

Jess and Buffy looked around to see Xander and Faith sitting in a couple of armchairs across the road. They both had large bowls of popcorn. Faith waved, and Xander tried to look as much like he wasn’t there as it was possible to do while watching avidly with a mouthful of popcorn.

“Friends of yours?” Jess said.

“Not at the moment.” Buffy said through gritted teeth.

~*~

“What did you do that for?” Xander said. “The show’s spoiled now.”

“Nah. She ain't going to come over here and let that kid get away. Dawnie’s a higher priority than trying to beat us to death.” Faith replied with a smirk.

“I am so blaming all of this on you.”

“Nothing new there, then.”

~*~

“So, can we get on with the topic at hand?” Jess said. He watched as Dawn came from the other direction and walked into the diner. She didn’t notice them. He contemplated calling out, but he didn’t think it would put him in good standing with Buffy if he hid behind her little sister. Although it was mildly annoying that the one time Dawn didn’t see him was the one time he would’ve quite liked her around.

“Yeah. You’d better treat my sister right, okay? Because I know a lot of people with big, big swords who would be only too happy to make sure your body is never found.”

Jess decided to pass on the quip about swords that he had on the tip of his tongue and instead said “Okay then. Message received. Can I go now?”

Buffy had never done this before, so she wasn’t quite sure how it was supposed to go. She was pretty sure, though, that Jess shouldn’t have just shrugged off a death threat like that. At the very least he should’ve made some sort of vow saying that he wouldn’t hurt Dawn in the first place. “Huh? That’s it? Are you dating my sister or not?”

Jess held up a hand. “Just hold on a second, will you?”

He walked past the rather surprised Buffy, poked his head into the diner and called “Hey, Dawn? Are we dating?”

Dawn froze, a forkful of pancake halfway to her mouth. The entire diner went quiet. “Um, yeah. Probably.”

“Thanks.” Jess said blandly, leaving again. Turning to Buffy, he said “Yeah, I guess we are.”

~*~

“The kid smokes?” Faith said, sounding surprised.

“Yeah. He’s a regular Spike Lite. How’d you work it out?”

“He keeps patting his pockets like he’s looking for ciggies.” Faith replied. She pulled out her own carton and tapped them absently against her thigh.

“You’re still smoking?” Xander said disapprovingly. “Don’t you know they’re bad for you?”

Faith shrugged. “I'm a Slayer. I doubt that the Big C is going to have time to get me. ‘sides, I already do so many things you guys don’t like I might as well play up the whole bad girl thing.”

An uncomfortable silence stretched out for a couple of seconds. Then Faith said “So, you figure the kid would appreciate a packet of ciggies?”

“What are you going to do, throw it at him?”

“Sure. Why not?”

Xander snorted. “He’s across the street, and those things fly like a… something that doesn’t fly very well. It’s not going to happen.”

“Got a lot of experience throwing cigarettes around?” Faith said playfully.

“Some.” Xander said in a carefully neutral voice. Faith decided not to press the issue. After a couple of seconds, his expression cleared and he said “Anyway, I bet you a dollar you can't make the shot.”

“You’re betting a Slayer she can’t do something physical? Yeah, I’ll happily take your money.” Faith said. Without further ado, she threw the cigarettes across the street. They were headed directly for Jess’ head.

Xander cupped his hand around his mouth and yelled “Hey, Jess! Duck!”

Jess turned, but there was no way that he was going to get out of the way in time. However, just before it was about the hit him right between the eyes, Buffy snatched it out of the air. Faith groaned.

“Hah! Told you so!” Xander said smugly. “Pay up.”

“Hey! I would’ve got him if B wasn’t there.” Faith protested. “I made the shot.”

“Didn’t hit him, though. Pay up.”

Buffy said a few words to Jess, then crossed the street to her friends. “I think you dropped something.” She said, tossing the carton to Faith who easily caught it.

“Hey, B? Spot me a dollar, will you?”

Buffy looked at her incredulously. “You’ve got to be kidding. After treating me like I'm a street show? No chance!”

Faith grinned at Xander. “Sorry.” She said unapologetically. “I guess I’ll have to pay you later.”

~*~

After Buffy left, Jess went inside and sat opposite Dawn. “Do you want to tell me what that was about?” she asked around a mouthful of pancake.

Jess shrugged. “Your sister dropped by to give me the ‘Hurt her and die’ speech. She wasn’t very good at it. She wasn’t sure whether we were actually dating, so she asked, and I asked you.”

Dawn waited for several second before asking “What did you say?” so that she didn’t seem too eager.

“That we are.”

Dawn couldn’t hide her grin, even behind her cup of coffee. “So you’ve gotten over your whole avoid-y, panicky jealous thing now?”

Jess picked some imaginary lint off of his sleeve. “Apparently.”

“What made you see reason?”

Jess gave her lopsided grin. “Having you dogging my footsteps like a little puppy began to get on my nerves. Thought I might as well face the music.”

“So, we good then?”

“Don’t get me wrong, Dawn, I'm not… ecstatic about your mysterious past. But even though your views on literature are absurd, I like you. So, I'm going to give this a try. I’ll see if I can keep the flailing to a minimum.”

Dawn made a face. “Would it help you to know that I don’t know what I'm doing any more than you do?”

“No, not really.” Jess shook his head. “Anyway, I’d quite like to kiss you now, but you’ve got syrup on your chin.”

Dawn blushed and wiped it away.

~*~

“So.” Buffy said brightly. “It’s about time we meet Rory, don’t you think?”

Faith chuckled wickedly, and Xander put his face in his hands. “Oh, this is going to be fun.” he groaned sarcastically.


	29. Chapter Twenty-Nine

When Rory had volunteered to help Lorelai fix all the little things that needed fixing around the inn before it could be properly opened for business, she had fully expected that Xander would drop by at some point.

She hadn’t expected that he would running in, wild eyed and out of breath, and declare in a slightly panicky voice “Come on, Rory. There’s still time. We can make a run for it. Is there a back door out of this place?” He grabbed her arm and began dragging her away. “Come on! It’s not too late.”

Rory tried to twist her arm free without success. Settling for planting her feet firmly on the ground and trying not to move (she didn’t have much success with that, either), Rory said “Why? Run from what? What’s going on?”

“No time! Got to-“ Xander trailed off as two young women, a blonde and a brunette, came into the lobby. They looked like they were barely restraining themselves from bursting out laughing. “Too late. Now we’re really in trouble.”

Rory frowned. She was sure that she recognised one of the women, the little blonde. It would probably come to her in a minute. Rory wondered who they were that they could drive Xander into such a state. They looked human, but she supposed that demons and things generally did, right up until they ate you.

“Really, Xan, you should know better than to run from us.” The brunette said with a grin. “We’re faster than you.”

“Anyway, shouldn’t you introduce us?” the blonde said, evidently trying to be serious.

Xander sighed. “Rory, Buffy. Buffy, Rory. Rory, Faith. Faith, Rory. Buffy, uh, Faith. Faith, Buffy.”

Buffy’s lips twitched. Faith turned to her, extended a hand and said “Nice to meet you, B.”

“Nice to meet you, too.” Buffy replied. “I guess it must be a different Faith I‘ve known for years.”

Suddenly it all made sense to Rory. Well, who the women were made sense. Why Xander wanted to run away from them, not so much. “Aren’t these your friends?” she whispered out of the corner of her mouth. “Why were we running from them?”

Apparently, she hadn’t whispered quietly enough. She should’ve guessed that Slayers would’ve been able to overhear her. “Yeah, Xan. That’s a good question. Why would you want to run from us?” Faith asked cheerfully.

“Because you're doubtlessly going to make look like a complete cretin in front of my girlfriend, and I'd like to avoid that if at all possible.” Xander said honestly.

“We wouldn’t do that, would we?” Faith asked Buffy innocently.

Buffy shrugged. “I think we probably would, actually. Besides, I thought you were King of the Cretins?”

“I abdicated. So can we leave now? You’ve looked at each other. We should probably leave before the speaking starts.”

Faith ignored him. “So, you’re Rory.”

Rory nodded. “That’s me.”

“Are you sure you’re not a guy?”

Rory frowned. Feeling the need to defend his girlfriend (or possibly to protect Rory from saying something caustic which would cause Faith to lose her temper and knocking her out) Xander said “What do you mean, is she sure that she’s not a guy? Can't you tell?”

Faith shrugged. “I don’t know. She’s kind of flat.”

“Whoa there.” Buffy said. “That’s a bit extreme, don’t you think?”

“I call ‘em like I see ‘em, B. Or, you know, as I don’t see ‘em.”

“Who are you, exactly?” Rory said coldly. “Xander has told me about Buffy, but he hasn’t ever mentioned you.”

“He didn’t?” Faith said, surprised. “You didn’t tell her?”

“Can you blame me for that?” Xander replied unhappily.

“I was his first. Guess it’s a good thing someone taught him how to steer around some curves, because you sure ain't going to. But then, I suppose that Dawnie wouldn’t have, either, so I guess it doesn’t matter.”

Rory was beginning to feel thoroughly lost now. “What? What does Dawn have to do with this?”

Before Xander could defend himself, or even make a dash for it, Faith continued with a smirk. “He didn’t mention that, either, huh? Xan, you should probably mention that you live next door to a girl who had a massive crush on you.”

“Is there anything else you forgot to tell me?” Rory said, in a dangerous voice.

“Why am I suddenly the bad guy?” Xander complained. “It’s not like I even knew about Dawn until a few days ago, and then she basically jumped on Jess so it didn’t matter. As for Faith, anything we had was kind of killed when she tried to strangle me.”

“Faith, I think enough is enough now.” Buffy said. “This is just a bit beyond the teasing we had planned.”

“Wait, you planned this?” Xander exclaimed. “What did I ever do to deserve this?”

“But, B, I haven’t even mentioned how Xander crushed on you for years.”

“What is this?” Rory said. “Xander, do you know any women who aren’t pretty and which you haven’t had a relationship with at some point?”

“Um, I never thought that surrounding myself with beautiful women was something I would have to apologize for, but hey, I'm sorry.” Xander said, hoping that that would lead Rory to forget the second part of her question. When she just looked at him coolly, Xander flushed, opened his mouth, promptly shut it again and eventually managed to come up with one name. “Um, Andrew?”

Both Faith and Buffy nodded as though that made perfect sense. Rory frowned. “I know I'm not one to talk, but isn’t Andrew a guy’s name?”

“Yeah, well, you haven’t met Andrew.” Buffy said. “He’s in a class all by himself.”

“Oh, goody.” Xander said under his breath. “Let’s all bash Andrew and then we can stop talking.”

“Xan.” Buffy said with a smile. “You know it having a plan doesn’t really work when you say it out loud.”

“How do you know that it wasn’t all part of my masterful plan?”

“Um, I don’t know, maybe because I’ve met you?”

“Ouch. I'm hurt. Almost as hurt as the fact that you and Faith conspired against me. It’s enough to make a man paranoid.” Xander countered.

“He has a point.” Faith said.

“You’d think living in Sunnydale would’ve taught him that paranoia is almost never unfounded.” Buffy responded.

“She has a point.” Faith said.

Xander shrugged. “No demon can, like, stop Valley Jesus! Only one he calls friend, a traitor, can do that. Totally Judas, I say!”

“Huh?” Faith and Buffy said in unison.

Xander clapped a hand to his face. “Suddenly I understand why Giles has problems telling people things. Everything goes much more smoothly when you don’t.”

Buffy sobered. “But seriously, Rory, if you-“

“Oh, you’re going to give me the shovel talk now are you?” Rory said angrily. “After I’ve stood here and been insulted by her, now I have to put up with being threatened by you? Well, listen here, Buffy. I haven’t done anything to hurt Xander, whereas he erased my memory of him, left me thinking he was dead for months and then got into an amazingly distracting water fight with my ex-boyfriend, which will probably remain etched in my brain until I die. So, if anyone is going to get given a shovel talk, I vote for him.”

Buffy gawped at her for several seconds. Faith burst out laughing. “Oh, I like her.”

~*~

Eventually, Xander managed to convince Buffy and Faith to leave before there was a massive cat fight (which, ordinarily, he wouldn’t mind seeing, but having a normal person get in a scrap with two Slayers was never a good idea) largely because Michel turned up and diffused things by being astoundingly grumpy.

However, turning to Rory, Xander suspected that Michel didn’t have anything on the massive storm of grumpiness that was about to swamp him.

“Why didn’t you tell me about any of that?” Rory said in a deceptively mild voice.

Xander sighed and rubbed his face. He tried to think of something to say that would stop this argument before it even began, but he just came up blank. “Because it’s embarrassing. No one wants to admit that they lost their virginity in a one night stand with someone who later tried to kill them. Or that they had a crush on someone who only showed interest in them to make their 250 year old boyfriend jealous, or under an accidental love spell. I know I told you about Cordy, though. Willow, too. I didn’t know about Dawn, not until recently, and since she’s with Jess now I just didn’t think it was really important.”

“See, now, you being jealous seems wildly hypocritical. I told you about all of my relationships. You hid yours.”

“Jealous? I wasn’t jealous. Jess was the one who attacked me, remember? He was the jealous one.”

“Oh? And what about Trevor? I guess you weren’t jealous about him, either?”

“Who the hell is Trevor?”

“That guy I went on a date with just after you left for Sunnydale the first time.”

Xander’s face lit with understanding. “Oh, Neville’s frog! Yeah, I'd forgotten about him. Although, to be fair, you did only tell me about him in order to make me jealous, so I hardly think that one counts.”

“Yeah, but-“

“I love you, Rory.” Xander said suddenly.

Rory just stared at him, as though she had turned to stone. It wasn’t the first time he had said that, she knew, but the other times she had been turning into a vampire and she had half-thought that he was just saying it to make her feel better.

He had certainly never said it with that expression on his face.

Xander chuckled self-consciously. “Um, Rory, would you mind saying something? Because standing there staring and looking like you’ve had a stroke is kind of freaking me out.”

“What?” Rory said in a dazed voice. “Oh, yeah. Sorry. Carry on.”

“I just wanted you to know that. Because I will doubtlessly do stupid things in the future, and you’ll probably wonder why on earth you put up with me, but I just want you to know from the outset that I love you.”

Rory shook her head as though to clear it. “Suddenly I'm finding it really difficult to remember what I was angry about.”

“Oh, cool. So, if you wouldn’t mind, can we just skip over the anger and the fighting and just move on to making out?”

Rory thought about it for a few seconds, although she didn’t really need to. “Yeah, I'm good with that.”

~*~

Sometime later (quite a long time later, but sadly not as long a time as Xander would’ve liked due to a surprise appearance from Lorelai) Xander was standing by the plot of land where the convalescence home was going to be built. Now that he had finally settled in and there was no longer any Ethan-related crises going on, he would actually have to start building the thing.

First, though, he had to come up with a name for it. Xander was kind of stumped on that front.

Stars Hollow Convalescence Home was just dull. The Watchers’ Convalescence Home was kind of creepy, and The Slayers Convalescence Home wasn’t much better. Valley Jesus Convalescence Home would confuse everyone, as would Batman or Van Helsing House (although the latter had possibilities, in terms of it being mainly filled with vampire hunters).

He thought about calling it Ro-Gil House, but he was pretty sure that Rory would have his head if he did that. The fact that he suspected that her grandparents would probably love it didn’t make him feel any better. Lion Girl just sounded ridiculous.

Then Xander smiled as an idea came to him. It was probably just as bad of an idea as the others had been, but he was the one who was going to be building and running the place so he didn’t really care. He liked it.

Coffee Lion House it would be. Xander could already imagine the signs he could make for it.

~*~

After Dawn left Luke’s to try and find her sister, Jess went upstairs and pulled out his Moleskine. It was just as unused as it had been when Dawn had given it to him. He hadn’t even opened it. He hadn’t felt as though he had anything even remotely interesting to write.

Now he did. He knew exactly where to start. So he picked up the Moleskine and a pen and went down to the bridge. He sat down, opened his book, and began to write.

Jess knew that Dawn thought that there was nothing better than a good bit of Wordsworth, and that Modernism was worthless. Jess thought that you could say what you like about T.S. Eliot, he understood how the world worked.

On the inside of the front cover, Jess wrote:

What we call the beginning is often the end  
And to make an end is to make a beginning.  
The end is where we start from.

Then Jess settled down and started to write an ending of his own.


End file.
